Naomi Danis

We often measure books by their re-readability. Parents and caregivers know well that they will be rereading the books that kids like --over and over. Bye, Car may well be a book to reread so kids (and adults) will get it. The book features two kids on each of the first ten spreads, saying "Bye, Car." And one wonders at first where this is going and how the author got the idea for the book. Its message is a subtle one that you might not see right away -- that each car is spewing exhaust in the air and leads readers to the last four spreads when the picture illustrate the green friendly modes of transportation -bikes, a tram, a bus. It's definitely a book we'd love to influence children, adults, voter, politicians, maybe guilting us into realizing that we are too often one person in one car polluting the world. The endpapers from pollution to a greener world say it all.

With the text, which includes opposites - near car, far car, rhymes-- howling car, growling car, and at the climax of the action blinking, winking, flashing dashing cars, Naomi Danis has left lots of room for the illustrator, and Daniel Rieley has enhanced the book in so many ways. Just before readers greet a new day and say hi to greener, cleaner vehicles, he creates a a crazy busy intersection, showing a fender bender and emergency vehicles trying to get through. Plus, as the book was published at the height of the pandemic, the characters are wearing masks in the beginning of the book. For more reason that one, of course, as who wants to inhale all those fumes. A clever book, well worth sharing in preschool-Grade 3 classrooms.… (more)

We often measure books by their re-readability. Parents and caregivers know well that they will be rereading the books that kids like --over and over. Bye, Car may well be a book to reread so kids (and adults) will get it. The book features two kids on each of the first ten spreads, saying "Bye, Car." And one wonders at first where this is going and how the author got the idea for the book. Its message is a subtle one that you might not see right away -- that each car is spewing exhaust in the air and leads readers to the last four spreads when the picture illustrate the green friendly modes of transportation -bikes, a tram, a bus. It's definitely a book we'd love to influence children, adults, voter, politicians, maybe guilting us into realizing that we are too often one person in one car polluting the world. The endpapers from pollution to a greener world say it all.

With the text, which includes opposites - near car, far car, rhymes-- howling car, growling car, and at the climax of the action blinking, winking, flashing dashing cars, Naomi Danis has left lots of room for the illustrator, and Daniel Rieley has enhanced the book in so many ways. Just before readers greet a new day and say hi to greener, cleaner vehicles, he creates a a crazy busy intersection, showing a fender bender and emergency vehicles trying to get through. Plus, as the book was published at the height of the pandemic, the characters are wearing masks in the beginning of the book. For more reason that one, of course, as who wants to inhale all those fumes. A clever book, well worth sharing in preschool-Grade 3 classrooms.… (more)