Of course it's different than the movie, although I was delighted to read that the characters of Caractactus Pott and his children were there from the beginning. Where the movie has some genuinely dark elements and characters (there is no mother and the child trapper is comically menacing), the book does not really. The bad guys are only seen at the end, and then only as brief caricatures that are easily overcome (as are most obstacles in the book). ( )

One of my favourite films, so favourite that i never bothered to read the book before.   I know, putting the cart before the horse is so unlike me.

Anyways, i've finally put things right and read the book, and guess what?   I totally enjoyed it.

Like the film, it's aimed directly for young children, i'd say around 7 or 8 years old, but it's also good for us Boomers who loved the film.

How do they compare?   Well the book only has some glimpses of the James Bond theme coming through, whereas the film, which was made well after Ian's death, has all the Bond tropes shoehorned into it somewhere and is much more the James Bond for children thing.   Example would be that in the book Caractacus is married to Mimsie, but in the film they needed to work in the Bond girl trope somehow, so they killed off Mimsie and created Truly Scrumptious.   They also made the arch villain much more Bond like with the big castle, and all that, and gave him the Bond henchman in the Kiddy Catcher.

But the book is still good and well worth getting if you have young children to give them a good reading to before you make them sit and watch the film: i'm sure they'll love it because Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is, without a doubt, the best James Bond film ever.

Enjoy. ( )

A read aloud with super appeal! ( )

What a fun book!! I love the simple language and the easy to follow story. Fleming does an excellent job of including small little educational tidbits that don't detract from the story. In fact, I could see using this story as a jumping off point for some early-childhood type educational materials. It's cute and fun, and I for one really want to try the fudge recipe at the end of it! This is one of the first older books I've read that I actually enjoyed, and it's so short it's easy to get through! It's very different from the movie and still incredibly enjoyable. ( )

I really enjoyed this book, and probably enjoyed it more than I ever did the movie starring Dick Van Dyke. The movie was “loosely based” on the book, so it’s almost a different story.

It came as a surprise to me that Ian Fleming, the creator of 007, and himself a member of the Intelligence Service, was the author of this delightful story. As it happens, this book was in a library of books we bought at an estate sale any years ago.

The plot is about a simple, poor, British inventor that sells (or licenses) his candy invention/recipe to Skrumshus (sic) Limited, the candy company, buys a soon-to-be-scrapped former race car, and, after restoring it to health, goes on holiday and adventure with his family. In the Adventure holiday, they discover the car’s magical personality, bring criminals to justice, and make lifelong friends.

Fleming writes with an avuncular style, throwing in educational tidbits and humorous asides. It is almost like he wrote a clean spy novel for children. I smiled at his wit throughout the story and I am loaning the book to my elementary-school-aged grandchildren. It is a book worthy of out-loud reading, and, indeed, I read it out loud to my own children when they were younger.

Lastly, John Burningham’s illustrations are straightforward, deft, and beautiful.