The Big Race Home

July 27, 2020
The author of Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site and its offshoots makes her middle grade debut in this series launch introducing a squirrel mesmerized by the zooming vehicles populating the racetrack below his family nest. Despite Revver’s need for speed, the story gets off to a poky start, given undue repetition of that fact as well as lengthy dialogue that establishes the squirrel siblings’ personalities. Only insightful Sprite—the sole female sibling, saddled alongside their mother with emotional labor in the form of caretaking and peacemaking—encourages her brother to pursue his dream of joining the human-only speedway pit crew, while constantly-in-motion Bounce and incessant eater Farty spend their days living up to their monikers. With a boost from spry cartoons by Willan (the Jasper & Ollie series), which comically capture Revver’s spunk, the novel’s pace picks up after he ventures into the track, where he befriends the mixed-gender pit crew and learns the mechanics of car racing. There he at last feels understood, learns the importance of teamwork and the value of family, and—after his curiosity and impulsiveness recurrently trigger mayhem—uses life lessons he’s absorbed to save the day. A sweet if sometimes overly descriptive tale. Ages 8–11. Author’s agent: Lori Kilkelly, LK Literary.

September 1, 2021
A race car-loving squirrel learns to temper his impulsive streak. Following 2020's Revver the Speedway Squirrel, readers are reunited with Revver, the pit crew squirrel. He loves the action and bustle of the racetrack and all the busyness that surrounds it, but he especially loves his human friends, Bill and Joe. When the race team moves circuits, though, Revver has a tough time exercising patience, causing a few catastrophic crashes and then missing his flight with the team. Separated from his humans, he must rely on the goodness of others to help him find his way back to them. Faced with a perilous journey during which he hikes along a treacherous highway, stows away on a crowded train, and encounters a conniving cat, can Revver reunite with his people before the next big race? Rinker's tale is filled with abundant squirrel cuteness and a smattering of giggle-inducing poop and puke scenes but falls somewhat flat, mired in its own didacticism with its heavy-handed insistence on patience and kindness. Revver's observations of the world come across as mundane, favoring telling over showing. The text utilizes a plethora of stylistic conventions--words in all caps, bold emphases, italics, and different fonts--which combined may prove too distracting and might have worked better in a shorter-form chapter book. Human characters are presumed White. Cuteness can't prop up this sagging sophomore slump. (Animal adventure. 8-11)

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