Zoom Zoom

We keep talking about taking Isaac to a NASCAR race.  Not that either of us is interested in NASCAR.  But Isaac was a huge Lightening McQueen fan for a long time, and we thought he would enjoy the experience.  I am willing to do almost anything once, just for the experience.  I have been to Monster Jam, once.  I rode a horse, once.  I went skiing, once.  I am willing to watch cars go in a circle for a few hours, once.

Of course, whether or not Isaac would actually enjoy the race is 50/50.  He would love seeing the cars, but he would hate the noise.  And I am positive he would be bored to tears after about 100 laps.  Or maybe that would be me.

While I am not a huge fan of modern NASCAR, the history of the sport and how it grew out of moonshining, and its connection to the region in which we now live, is mildly interesting.  We took Isaac to the Moonshine Festival a couple of years ago and they had old race cars and cars that had been outfitted specifically for running shine on display.  Isaac loved it.

When I saw Racecar Alphabet by Brian Floca on the shelf, I thought it was a book Isaac would enjoy.  The text is simpler than many of the books we are reading now, but it was a nice change of pace after slogging through Isaac's leveled reading books and reading text heavy chapter books.  It is an alphabet book, but the format is not typical for this type of concept book.  Each letter is not associated with an object; instead the text flows from page to page, with car parts or characteristics or even just adjectives for each letter interspersed throughout.

Boys who love cars, and racing, will love this book.  But what I think they will really like looking at is the end papers.  Floca has used his illustrations to show the history of racing, even though the words in the book are really merely descriptive.  The end papers are used as a timeline of racing, with cars from different periods (with dates) represented.  Cars from the earliest days of racing to the modern variations of the sport are shown.

I don't think we will make it to a race any time soon.  But Isaac and I wouldn't mind going back to the Moonshine Festival to see some of these cars up close again.