Me, Dad, & Number 6 - Hardcover

Jennings, Dana Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152000852 ISBN 13: 9780152000851

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers, 1997

Synopsis

Six-year-old Andy can’t imagine how a beat-up '37 Pontiac coupe could ever be worth anything. But when his dad strips it down and paints a big red 6 on its side, Andy begins to see the old car in a new way. The two have a great summer together fixing up the stock car and racing it, until a spinout makes Andy realize the summer’s been about more than just winning races. “This is a nostalgic excursion that compels its audience to come along for the ride.”--The Bulletin

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From Kirkus Reviews:

Jennings (for adults, Lonesome Standard Time, 1996, etc.) makes his picture-book debut with the story of Number 6, an inoperative 1937 Pontiac coupe that Andy's father tows home behind his pickup one Saturday. Whenever they can find time, Dad, his pals, and Andy work on the car, and in two months it emerges shiny and grand and ready for stock-car racing. While his father drives, Andy and his mother watch from the sidelines, their ears filled with the roar of the engines. The child loves the excitement, and he's bitterly disappointed when Number 6 gets smashed beyond repair in the last race of the year. His father is more sanguine, noting all the fun they've had and preparing to find another car. Some lyrical moments are all but spoiled by the unevenness of Andy's narration; when he says that he and his father looked like ``grubby monsters that lived in the tailpipe,'' he sounds his age, but ``the house drowsed quiet'' is adult, and the tears he cries as ``thick and slow as dirty motor oil'' vanquish both poetics and authenticity. Sasaki's realistic watercolors warmly evoke the rural setting, racetrack excitement, and affection between father and son. One quibble: The trees are as leafed out and green in March as they are at the end of the racing season, months later. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0152000852
• ISBN 13: 9780152000851
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Sasaki Goro