Evie feels that her dad doesn't have time for her and that he spends his life preparing for or taking part in the Speedhweels 3000, a car race across several European countries that is guaranteed to test your nerves. It's not for the faint hearted but this year, Evie has a plan: she's going to stow away in the boot of her dad's car so she can finally spend some quality time with him. However, things don't quite go according to plan and they find themselves in their car, dangling over the edge of a cliff with £4 million worth of gold in their boot! Can Evie get them out of trouble and back in the race so they can be crowned champions.
Jenny is a wonderful writer and regular readers of my blog will know that she has the ability to make me laugh out loud and cry simultaneously! She visited school last December and was a huge hit with the school and, unsurprisingly, her books are hugely popular there too.
I was part of a group of bloggers lucky enough to be able to reveal the cover for Jenny's new book, Speedwheels 300: A Race Against Crime, recently and also hugely privileged to be able to read the book months before its release. I sat down this morning to begin reading with my mug of hot chocolate and I have to say that I barely moved until dinner time, gobbling the entire thing in one delicious sitting!
Evie is desperate for her dad's attention and is prepared to do almost anything to get it. You see her parents lost their son, Timmy, before Evie was born and whilst her mum has thrown herself into campaigning for animal rights, her dad has devoted himself to Speedwheels and Toots, his car. Evie is an incredibly persuasive character and has her arguments ready as to why she should join her dad, but when all else fails, she feels the only option left to her is to hide in the boot until they reach France and then jump out and be the best navigator ever. From the beginning of the book, you know that things go awry, with them dangling off a cliff in Italy with a boot full of gold bullion, and the book slowly reveals exactly how that happened in an unputdownable way.
Oh My Knickers, this is a brilliantly funny and emotional rollercoaster of a book. I genuinely hadn't intended to read the entire book in one sitting but I just couldn't put it down! A 3000 mile race across several European countries with wacky tasks to do at the checkpoints (think paddling pools and table cloths!), but the contestants are ruthless and will stop at nothing to get ahead of the competition. The book is a wonderful blend of adventure, daring-do, humour and peril, with serious messages about parental grief and how families cope with the death of a child woven in superbly. It brought a tear my eye seeing the relationship between Evie and her dad develop as the book progresses and there's one particular moment as the car is perched on the cliff that brought a real lump to my throat.
With a wonderful map, top trump style cards to introduce the main racers and the rules of the race explained at the beginning of the book, readers will be gripped even before they start reading! I know there is going to be huge amounts of excitement when I tell my class about this book tomorrow morning, and equal measures of frustration when they realise that I read an electronic copy so they can't borrow it yet!
Publishing 13th February, Speedwheels 3000: A Race Against Crime is Wacky Races meets The Cannonball Run. Guaranteed to fill your heart with joy and put the biggest smile on your face, this is a book you absolutely need to pre-order.
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