Over the Moon and across the Pond

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Over the Moon, by Frank Cottrell Boyce. Candlewick, 2014, 240 pages. Age/interest level: 9-13

The magical car seems to be flying for the last time in this latest installment of her time-traveling adventures (following Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race against Time, which takes her and the Tooting family back to the prehistoric era). Not only does Chitty fly to the moon and back, but this time, the Tooting family actually meets the original Potts family. There are also instances in which the modern Chitty is in the same time and place with a Chitty from another time and place. The Tootings and Pottses try valiantly to keep the two Chittys from actually seeing each other because they rightly fear an interruption in the space-time continuum. Tiny Jack is his same nefarious self, and everyone gets a glimpse of what the future would be if we went back and tinkered with the past.

Sometimes, hard decisions must be made, and the Tootings and Pottses are faced with a doozie: do they do the right thing, take Chitty back into the past, and undo a wrong? By undoing it, they will also undo the Tootings’ own experiences with Chitty—without even a memory left. This sacrifice on the Tootings’ part would be immense. But, doing the right thing often does call for sacrifice. And community often helps us survive those sacrifices. A terrifically fun read, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Over the Moon is light sci-fi, full of quirky characters, nicely diverse, and very British.

• Worldview/Moral value: 3.5 (out of 5)
• Literary value: 3.75

Operation Bunny (Wings & Co. #1), by Sally Gardner, illustrated by David Roberts. Henry Holt, 176 pages. Age/interest level: 8-12

Abandoned as a baby and adopted by the social-climbing Dashwoods, Emily Vole feels like a fairy-tale character–all the more so after Daisy, her negligent stepmother, buys her a book of fairy tales so she can say the girl is being home-educated. But Emily is basically a household slave, especially after the Dashwood triplets are born. Luckily she is befriended by the eccentric neighbor, Ms. Ottoline String, and the lady’s large, vocal, and very efficient cat, Fidget. There’s more to this odd couple than meets the eye, even though what meets the eye is plenty. But there’s more to Emily, too, revealed when Ms. String’s iron keys, left in her care by a magician who’s disappeared, become animated when Emily picks them up. This mysterious power attracts the unwelcome attention of Harpella the witch, leading to unfortunate consequences, such as innocent bystanders transformed to pink bunnies.

English quirkiness is on full display here, in a lighter-then-air story with some clever lines, notably from Fidget (“Twiddle my whiskers and call me a tuna”). I don’t believe any of it is meant to be taken seriously; it has some of the charms of Flora & Ulysses without the underlying message. But the series is young, and may develop a little weight over time. Who are Emily’s real parents? Who is the lost magician? What’s Harpella’s backstory?  So far the series seems a harmless diversion as long as the sensitive reader is not haunted by an exceptionally ugly witch.

• Worldview/moral value: 3.5
• Literary value: 3.5

See our earlier reviews of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Flora & Ulysses. The Larklight series also might be categorized as “light science fiction.” And speaking of bunnies, check out Mr. and Mrs. Bunny for another fun read.