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Review: Revver the Speedway Squirrel by Sherri Duskey Rinker

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , ,
Revver the Speedway Squirrel by Sherry Duskey Rinker

Revver the Speedway Squirrel
Sherri Duskey Rinker
Bloomsbury USA Children’s
Published October 6, 2020

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

About Revver the Speedway Squirrel

Meet Revver: a little squirrel with big dreams . . . to drive a race car! His siblings might not understand his need for speed, but Revver doesn’t care. And he certainly doesn’t care about looking for food, climbing trees, or any other “ordinary” squirrel activity. He spends his days staring at the racetrack just below his nest, where the cars zoom by day in and day out.

When Revver finally gets the chance to sneak out to the track, he finds that becoming part of the pit crew is more difficult than he expected. He never learned anything about engines in Squirrel School! Then Revver meets tire changer Bill, who luckily has a soft spot for animals. Can Revver prove to Bill that he deserves to be part of the team?

Perfect for fans of Ralph S. Mouse, Revver the Speedway Squirrel is a funny, action-packed, and heartwarming story about family, feeling different, and following your heart.

My Review

The beginning of this book was a little bit weird to me. There’s a lot of setup of mama squirrel and Revver and his siblings (including a somewhat shocking moment when mama squirrel cheerfully warns her babies that if they don’t learn the lessons she’s trying to teach them that she may have to eat them.). Revver doesn’t have time for or interest in ordinary squirrel things. What he really wants is to be involved in the racetrack he’s been watching all his life from the nest.

Once Revver reaches the track and begins to learn about being part of a team and the importance of thinking things through, the story gains a lot of momentum. Revver’s dream is within his grasp, but only if he can learn the squirrel lessons he once thought were so useless.

On the whole, this is a fun story that combines animal narrators and a racetrack setting that should appeal to readers with both those interests. It’s probably best for readers who are right between chapter and middle grade books.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 10.

Representation
Main characters are squirrels.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
No profanity. Some crude references to bodily functions. One of the squirrels is named “Farty” because he has lots of gas.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
The mother squirrel tries to teach all her babies about dangers and survival. She tells them if they don’t learn all the lessons, she may have to eat them. A man kicks a squirrel into the air. Coyotes surround a squirrel, hoping to eat her.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of REVVER THE SPEEDWAY SQUIRREL in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.

Review: Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , ,

Flora and Ulysses
Kate DiCamillo
Candlewick Press

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

When Flora saves a squirrel from a powerful vacuum cleaner, she discovers that he has super powers. She names him Ulysses and brings him home to teach him what it means to be a hero, and she watches and waits for his true superpowers to emerge. Ulysses’ powers do emerge: a deep love for Flora and the gift of poetry. Her desire to protect him and his power to communicate changes Flora’s life in unexpected ways.

My family and I listened to this as an audiobook on our vacation. I loved the comics that Flora reads and how they were a bond between her and her dad. Ulysses totally had me from the moment he walked onto the page. The tone of the story is playful and fun, but it delves pretty deep into some emotional territory. Flora’s parents have separated, and that really unsettles her. She doubts her mom’s love for her, resenting the household lamp shaped like a shepherdess that her mother keeps in a prized spot in the house. During the separation, Flora’s relationship with her father becomes strained. Having Ulysses in her life is this huge, positive thing, and soon he begins to affect everyone around her.

Throughout the story, we laughed, we teared up. We shouted, “Holy Bagumba!” right there along with Flora and her dad. It was a great read, and a lot of fun.

Cultural Elements
Smalltown America. I don’t recall racial descriptions of characters.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A few expressions like, “what the heck,” “holy unanticipated occurences,” and “for the love of Pete” pepper the story. Nothing heavier than that.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
A woman briefly discusses Pascal’s Wager with Flora and what it means. (That believing in God on faith means one has less to lose than not believing. She also mentions that her husband, who has died, is “singing with the angels.”

Flora quotes from a comic that says, “Do not hope. Only observe.” She wrestles to follow this advice but realizes that she can’t help hoping, and that hope is what carries her through some hard moments.

Violent Content
Flora’s mom wants her dad to take Ulysses out and bash him on the head with a shovel to kill him.

At one point, a man with a chef’s knife starts toward Ulysses. With her father’s implied permission, Flora trips the man.

Drug Content
Flora’s mom smokes cigarettes.

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