The cupboard is "a bit bare," so Vincent's mom sends her son off in his handmade soap-box derby car with a shopping list: "a Bunch of Carrots, a Box of Rice, some Tasty Cheese, a Big Firm Pear, a Can of Peas" and he must "hurry home in time for tea!" Of course, when the list blows away, he worries his memory of it will, too, so throughout his journey he repeatedly chants the list.
The chanting doesn't quite work. As Vincent and his race car roll past the circus, he picks up a trapeze in lieu of the requested "Can of Peas," and later, a "Big Furry Bear" instead of a "Big Firm Pear" and a "Box of Mice" instead of a "Box of Rice." Various local characters--including a French artist whose paint splatters marvelously into the air and onto a field of wheat--greet Vincent and his expanding menagerie. But Vincent can't stop for hellos, he has to "rush to the shops." In time his very loaded-up car looks like a parade float, all delightful chaos as white mice spill out of their box and the chimps cavort with the trapeze artist. (One of the many visual punch lines is that a blue bird has the flyaway shopping list in her beak the whole time.) Everyone's invited in for a gleeful tea, much to the shock of Vincent's mother.
British author-illustrator Jo Empson (Rabbityness; Never Ever) brings her wonderfully freewheeling, kinetic style to this lively read-aloud that will have youngsters giggling and shouting out the correct items from the list. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness