Makin' Tracks: I'm Fast! by Kate and Jim McMullan

"WHAT IS IT, RED? YOU WANNA HAVE A RACE?

FIRST ONE TO CHICAGO WINS!"

A little red sports car is revvin' to roll, and big blue freight train takes on the dare--and the race is on! It's a vehicular run for the roses across the Rockies as the two rivals pit their assorted powers against each other.

It seems as if Red Car is a shoo-in; after all, he's light and agile, while Blue Train has to tug a long string of heavy freight cars over those mountains. At first it seems like the first lap of the Tortoise and the Hare all over again. Train has predictable troubles. Watch out! Cattle on the track! Gotta STOP! Red Racer roars by, grinning widely as he rolls ahead, but even the highway system has its hazards--gridlock and grinding grades that slow him down. The lead switches back and forth, but the two racers are neck-to-neck as they near their finish line, the city limits of the Windy City.

Red Racer seems to pull ahead, but then...

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! TOOOOOOO-OOOOTTTT!

It's the ultimate racing irony--Red Car is stopped dead by a railroad crossing gate, red lights flashing, as a smiling Blue Train roars by and pulls into Chi-Town, the champion of this chase. But Red Racer is not deterred.

"VRRRRUMM! WANNA RACE BACK?

Kate and Jim McMullan's latest collaboration, I'm Fast! (Balzer & Bray, 2012) is a rollicking race story, with cheery retro illustrations and a rousing backdrop of the far west as the two tear cross-country. This newest joins the McMullan's comic trio of transport tales, I'm Dirty!, I Stink!, and I'm Mighty! and their dynamic duo of dandy dinosaur sagas, I'm Bad! and I'm Big! in a jolly sextet of picture books for the early childhood set.

"...a rip-roaring ride.” rejoices Publishers Weekly. VVRRRUUMM!!