Ian Fleming, famous for creating James Bond, also loved fast cars -- and this love spurred him to write his only children's book, for his little boy, Caspar, about a car that could fly. Published just after Fleming's death in 1964, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car became an immediate bestseller. It has been reinvented as a musical and as a film (with the screenplay written by Roald Dahl) and inspired two sequels written by Frank Cottrell Boyce.

Joe Berger is an editorial cartoonist, animator, and illustrator. He has illustrated numerous books, including the Nosy Crow title Hubble Bubble, Granny Trouble by Tracey Corderoy. Joe Berger lives in England.

There's no improving on perfection--in this case Fleming's adventure story (featuring the unconventional family Pott and their magically refurbished motorcar) with the original, transcendent Burningham illustrations, first published in 1964. The confiding informality of the storyteller's voice; the nonstop and immensely child-pleasing adventures; the spunk of young Jeremy and Jemima; and of course the ingenious personality of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang herself--all combine to make an ideal family read-aloud. This handsome fiftieth-anniversary gift edition is ... so very welcome.
--Horn Book

This is why the book holds up, 50 years after its original publication: its sense of the world as an inexplicable but also miraculous place.
--Los Angeles Times Online

Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)

Pub date: 2013-03-12

Length: 160 pages