Frank Cottrell Boyce (Millions) creates a fitting tribute to the Ian Fleming classic with this companion volume starring the loving Tooting tribe and a family camper with a will of its own.
When Mr. Tooting loses his factory job, he sees it as an opportunity to do home improvements. But it doesn't completely work out. He paints goth teen Lucy's room a bright blue with daisies, and programs his youngest son Harry's toys to play with him, resulting in his pet snake's attempts to strangle the child. Luckily, Mrs. Tooting finds an old camper in need of rehabilitation that will provide the wheels for their summer holiday. Mr. Tooting goes in search of an engine to rehabilitate and finds a 12-piston beauty with its own name, Zborowski. And they soon discover the engine has wings.
Boyce takes the framework of Fleming's tale and runs with it. Berger's illustrations of the camper's first flight and landing atop the Eiffel Tower tap into the fun and good humor. All the children get into the swing of it: Little Harry is at the wheel the first time the camper takes off; Jem helps Dad as chief assistant car mechanic; and Lucy comes up with a way to make some cash serving pancakes out of the camper in Cairo (aka "Café Café Bang Bang"). Of course there's a requisite evasion of the villains, and adult Fleming fans will detect some clever allusions to Bond. Boyce makes the family dynamics the greatest source of humor in a book the whole family can enjoy. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness