Times Trials! Peg + Cat: The Race Car Problem by Jennifer Oxley

ONE DAY PEG AND CAT WENT TO THE JUNKYARD. ORDINARILY, THEY DIDN'T HAVE MUCH USE FOR A BUNCH OF OLD JUNK, BUT THIS WAS NOT A NORMAL DAY.

IT WAS THE DAY OF THE TALLAPEGGA 20, A REALLY BIG-DEAL RACE.

Peg, the perky pizzeria cook, and her friend, Cat, take some time off to head to the track to try out their design for what they hope will be a hot-as-a-pizza-oven race car.  But first they have to build their own racer, and to do that they have to assemble the right parts.

At least they've got the name--HOT BUTTERED LIGHTNING!

To start, they've come up with some round objects for wheels, but on the first trial run, their car loses a wheel.

No problem. There are lots of round objects in the junkyard, and a trash can lid is just the right shape and size!

But the competition looks tough!  There's the amphibious Pirate-Mobile, good on land or sea.  And then there's the Pizza-Mobile, cooked up by the Teens and fueled (natch!) by potato chips and cherry cola. But the biggest competitor looks to be Pig's Triangle-Mobile, which really looks sharp!

Peg and Cat wonder if they should just have the Hot-Buttered Lightning scratched from the time trials. But their calculating friend Ramone, won't let them quit.

"YOU NEVER SOLVE A PROBLEM BY GIVING UP!"

Peg and Cat fall behind on the first lap, but Pig has to stop for a triangular treat, a slice of pie, and they gain some laps. The always hungry Teens can't resist sneaking a few bites of their car. And the Pirate-Mobile falls a few YARRRDs behind.

So Peg and Cat keep counting up the laps and learn how to write comparative numerical statements, in Jennifer Oxley's Peg + Cat: The Race Car Problem (Candlewick Press, 2015). Based on the Emmy-winning television program, this one offers some favorite cartoon characters and a chance to review some basic math concepts. Pair this one with Oxley's Peg + Cat: The Pizza Problem, which helps Pet and Cat cope with fractions (half, quarter, eighth) of their pizzas, or Oxley's The Chicken Problem, which helps solve a multiplying chicken problem by rounding! (See review here.)