Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Taxi Ride with Victor a galactic adventure, kooky, quirky and bundles of fun written by Sara Trofa, illustrated by Elsa Klever and published by Prestel.
Taxi Ride with Victor tells the tale of a rather haphazard and dozy taxi driver, Victor means well, and tries his best to be the greatest taxi driver in the galaxy, but however hard he tries, he always seems to go wrong. From taking Grandma to a theme park and the librarian to the dentist, every trip Victor does leads them to strange places. Yet, crazy and silly and hopeless as he may seem, as he drives his merry band of people about, he makes even one of them happy, and through this makes a whole bunch of brand new friends.
This is one of those picture books that has so much going for it, it’s silly and quirky, with the most wonderful illustrations, which have a style unlike many I’ve seen. The intergalactic characters are all different and fully of personality, my most favourite being, of course, the librarian (what is that crawling out of his. mouth??)!! And the Central Library. Elsa has managed to capture so many different places and atmospheres that every page is different and a treat.
The writing is clean and easy to follow and although this story is bags of fun. to read. and pure entertainment, in a school setting it has lots to. offer. Firstly, it covers the days of the week, which is always brilliantly useful as a teaching aid when trying to explain this concept to children. But it also deals with directions, a common school topic. Left, right, up, down, maps, all such useful vocabulary and ideas for young children to learn, and putting them. within a brilliant book like this will make that learning fun. It’s all about reinforcement through storytelling, this is the power of books. Or one of them at least.
Overall, Taxi Ride with Victor is a joyful, lovely, funny read, with the added educational bonuses that make this is a truly valuable read.
I am now absolutely thrilled to welcome onto the blog author Sara with her top 5 intergalactic book choices (and I would agree with all of these wonderful books).
- Life on Mars by Jon Agee
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/539679/life-on-mars-by-jon-agee/9780399538520/
Life on Mars is witty and sweet at the same time. Jon Agee never lets us down!
- Winnie in Space by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul
https://global.oup.com/education/product/9780192748256/?region=uk
Winnie and Wilbur series. If they go to space, I’ll go with them!
- Dr Xargle’s Book of Earthlets by Jeanne Willis, ill. by Tony Ross
An alien point of view on us and our “earthlets”. Brilliant and utterly funny.
- Interstellar Cinderella by Deborah Underwood, ill. by Meg Hunt
https://www.abramsandchronicle.co.uk/book/9781452125329-interstellar-cinderella/
I’m addicted to fairy tale retellings! This interstellar Cinderella with pink hair and big goggles is spot on and the illustrations are fantastic, such a great colour palette.
- Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space by David Walliman, ill. by Ben Newman
https://flyingeyebooks.com/shop/professor-astro-cats-frontiers-of-space/?
Exciting and wonderfully designed non-fiction picture book about the galaxy. When I was working as a bookseller, I used to recommend this gem all the time.
What a brilliant selection of space reads! I’m a big fan of these, thank you so much Sara for taking the time to compile the list.
Taxi Ride with Victor will be released on September 24th, 2019, and available from all good bookshops and libraries.
Thank you to Prestel for including me on the blog tour and sending a copy of the book for review, and thank you for reading this Book Monster review.
