Born to Drive

Stuff in this book:

A kid racecar driver
He's also an inventor and a very bad singer

Two Nutty Aunts

A Remote Control Pocket Watch

A Racecar named Racecar

Dumb bad guys

$1 million

a lousy creep

backward words

more than 14 laughs

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Thanks to his pit crew and his gadget-geared racecar named Racecar, Otto has never lost a race, but when two thugs set out to steal Racecar to sabotage Otto's next race, they learn they are no match for Otto. Simultaneous.

In the launch title of the Otto Undercover series, Perlman's mostly feeble stabs at humor will likely elicit fewer laughs than her deftly delivered comedic performances as an actress. In the driver's seat is Otto Pillip, who has built his own racecar, the fastest on the planet, which, given his penchant for palindromes, he has named Racecar. Since his parents left years ago (allegedly on an expedition to discover the eighth continent), Otto has lived with his two aunts, who helped him get his driver's license (which entailed passing a 30-page written test) and wrote a note "to get him out of school for the rest of his life." The villains here are two bumbling blockheads who "were both in third grade for eight years, till they got kicked out of school for setting fire to the teacher." Determined to win the $1 million first-place prize in a big road race, this dastardly duo steals Racecar, leaving a look-alike in its place. Luckily, Otto has some inventions up his sleeve and a happy ending is in store. Santat's brash cartoons add to the inanity of this slim caper, which contains numerous palindromes, anagrams and backward words, decoded in the pages' margins. The second title, Canyon Catastrophe (0-06-075498-2; paper 0-06-075497-4) is being published simultaneously. Ages 7-11. (Jan.)

[Page 65]. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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Gr 3-6 -Otto Pillip loves palindromes, which isn't surprising, given his name. Although he's only 11, he invents all kinds of incredible devices and drives a race car named Racecar. Having lost his parents mysteriously as a baby, he lives with his two peculiar aunts, FiFi and FooFoo. Otto enters a race with a one-million-dollar purse, but, the night before the event, Racecar is stolen by two exceptionally obtuse bad guys. They don't realize that Otto has loaded his car with an invention to defeat every deception imaginable. Perlman (yes, the comic actress of Cheers fame) breaks the novel into tiny, easy-to-digest bits (some of the 36 chapters are only a few words long), which offers the possibility of a fun read, especially for hard-to-motivate readers. Unfortunately, the humor, as well as the story, is mostly lame and repetitious, and Santat's cartoon illustrations add little to the mix. In the second book, Otto receives a secret message implying that if he travels to the Grand Canyon, he might obtain a clue to the whereabouts of his missing parents, so he and his aunts head west. Much silliness ensues involving a crook in a dress, aunts disguised as uncles, 10,000 sticks of dynamite, and a pet cockroach. Like the first novel, Canyon Catastrophe seems designed for reluctant readers, but the gags tend to repeat themselves, the humor involving palindromes and anagrams gets old fast, and the art is only adequate.-Walter Minkel, New York Public Library

[Page 109]. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.