Explore your Neighborhood with Wonder House! [Reviews]

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Book Title: In My Car
Author: Susan Rose Simms
Illustrator: Isa Pirracas
Publisher: Wonder House Books
Type: Board Book
Length: 22 pages
Recommended Age: 1.5-3.5 years (Aditi recommends this for 2-5 years)

My daughter – Anika (3 years old) loves car rides. Though she experiences a bit of motion sickness, there is nothing that excites her more than a drive around our neighborhood. We were thrilled to win this lovely book from Wonder House. Anika has always seen her elder sister, Ananya (7 years old), win books from Kids Book Cafe and has been motivated ever since to win one for herself. She was jumping and beaming with joy and excitement when the book arrived, and the happiness was palpable!

Wonder House’s – In My Car is a delightful board book designed for young children. The story features a girl and her grandparent zooming around their neighborhood in a cute little yellow car. The book takes us through large, colorful images that depict different things, places, and people we encounter in our daily lives.

The sentences are simple and easy to understand for a young reader. The book is sturdy enough to withstand handling of a kid. Illustrations are bright and engaging. I really liked that the illustrator has made an effort to include diversity. The book features a variety of cultures, races, and physical appearances by including characters with different hair colors, textures, and features reflecting real world diversity and fostering a sense of belonging for children from various backgrounds.

Simple and repetitive text is a good way to build little one’s vocabulary. However, the content might be limited for older toddlers who are ready for more complex stories. Anika particularly liked the page where the girl spots a children’s play area along especially the rock-climbing zone. I would say it is an excellent choice for introducing toddlers to the world around them.

A book that makes car rides super fun and interactive!!

Aditi shared a wonderful review of the book in the kbc fb group here! Quoting her:

“From the first moment that Kiaan held this book he fell in love with it. He won this book for the WonderHouseWednesdaysOnKbc Prompt 60 where he drew a picture of his neighbourhood and all the things he loves about it.

This is a hardy board book which has extremely colourful and attractive illustrations. A little kid sits in her car, as her grandfather cruises through the town. She notices children playing in the park, people watering their gardens or busy construction workers and shopkeepers doing their daily tasks. They cross banks to libraries, schools to bakery shops. The book fascinated Kiaan so much that he insisted on carrying it when we went on a long drive. He read it multiple times during the journey trying to match what he read with what he saw from his car.

I highly recommend this book to make car rides super fun and interactive for toddlers and kindergarten kids. I am adding this absolutely adorable book to my list of books that I love giving as gifts.”

Arundhati, another winner, has shared inside pages in the kbc fb group here. In her words: “The book has been narrated by a kid who is visiting the neighborhood in car. While driving slowly down the street she thinks what will she see, whom will she meet. On the they meet the mailman, see the firefighters, goes past the school, meet the construction workers and the neighbours. Every turn she is excited whom she will meet next or what will she see next.

After reading the book, whenever we go out now they have started to notice their neighborhood more closely and helps us to discuss what they are observing.”

If you enjoyed these vroom vroom reviews and wish to explore your neighbourhood similarly, you can order this book from Amazon (kbc affiliate link),

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Disclaimer: Pooja, Aditi and Arundhati are a part of the #kbcReviewerSquad and won this book as a prize in one of the WonderHouseWedenesdaysOnKBC contests from the publisher via kbc.