Beep Beep, Vroom Vroom!

Murphy, Stuart J. Beep Beep, Vroom Vroom! Illustrated by Christ Demarest. Harper Collins, 2000. 32 pages. $5.99. ISBN 9780060280161.

Summary:

Kevin has a very special way of lining up his toy cars: red, blue, yellow (repeat). When mom calls him downstairs, Kevin warns his little sister, Molly, that his cars better be in their special places when he returns. What’s a little sister to do? As soon as he’s out of sight, “Vroom Vroom, Beep Beep, Crash Crash!” go the cars. When she tries to realign them in their special spots, she’s not sure she’s got it right: red, red, yellow, blue, blue (repeat). This pattern (crashing and setting up) continues until Kevin himself returns with a surprise for Molly: her own set of toy cars!

Curriculum Connections:

This simple story has many patterns, a foundation concept in kindergarten and first grade math. With bright illustrations and a familiar sibling dynamic, children will enjoy noticing the patterns throughout the illustrations as well as in the form of the story. It could be used to introduce a unit or to review and share group observations. The book includes two pages of the author’s suggestions of how the text might be used with children.

Personal Reflections:

I read this book to several kindergarten classes who had been working with patterns in math. They were delighted to spot the patterns in the illustrations and some students assigned letter names to the colored cars when reciting the pattern, as they had in their classroom (ie. “AAA, BBB, CCC”).

Awards:

Age/Interest Range:

4-8

Genre/Themes:

Math Concepts, Patterns, Realistic Fiction

Read-Alikes:

Murphy, the author and founder of Math Start (http://www.mathstart.net/books/level_1/) , has a whole line of leveled math concept stories. Seaweed Soup (matching sets), Monster Musical Chairs (subtracting one), Missing Mittens (odd and even numbers) are just a few of the books in the Level 1 series.