Maybe 3.5 stars. Good for read-aloud - it does swing along with interesting words & syntax. Good for a Tall Tales unit that wants to explore beyond John Henry, Paul Bunyan, Mike Fink.... ( )

"Roy Makes A Car" was among the most interesting books I have read so far, and I did enjoy it however I failed to find the message of the book. This book is written in third language with diction that might be a little hard for kids to understand. The book takes place in Eatonville, Florida which is rural town and in the book one of the characters say, "I got two bucks says it can't do diddly out on the road." The narrator of the story also talks in a rural southern manner, which could be hard for kids to follow which is why I would recommend this book to third graders and above. However with this being said, I like how the author uses vernacular language in this book, a lot of children's picture books do not include vernacular language, but it is sometimes important to, to describe the setting and characters of the story. The illustrations in this book were very fun and imaginative and I liked how on each page that just had words there was little illustration of one of Ray's mechanical tools. Another thing I noticed from this book is that it mentions God. Because not every child knows or understands what the concept of God is, this could raise a lot of questions and possible confusion as well. ( )

I had mixed feelings about this book. I liked the illustrations, they added quite a bit of humor and character to the book. They were such loud strong colors and they always portrayed a happy mood. The illustrations gave the words a new life, and kept the book going at a nice pace. The main character Roy, was very easy to get along with. He was a little quirky but at the same time you couldn't help but smile at the things he was doing.Roy was very out going and not afraid of a challenge. He was given a challenge and he made a plan and stuck to it until he came up with a final product that helped him complete his challenge. He was always trying to make something better, and more impressive. The one aspect of this book that i didn't like was the very end. It was a great story up until the end. When it very abruptly brought up God. Which in a children's book i don't think is entirely appropriate. The story could have ended 3/4 of the way though and it still would have made sense. Religion is one of those topics that you have to be very careful about when writing children books, because with in one classroom their could be multiple different religions that students practice. Overall i think one message that this book demonstrates is to think outside the box and to use your imagination. ( )

I really enjoyed the book Roy Makes a Car. I thought it was a great opportunity to show African-American culture in a fictional world involving historical events. This story is supposed to represent the time that cars were being invented and utilized in the United States. I enjoyed how the African American Vernacular English (AAVE) was displayed throughout the story. This gave the effect of a different culture representation and helped the reader become more involved with the different characters. I liked how the playfulness of the different inventions for the car added a sense of wit and brilliance to the main character, while also keeping the book childlike. This book is based on story collections by author Zora Neal Hurston. A brilliant author who depicts African American culture in her book "Their Eyes Were Watching God". I think that this book is a fun depiction of African American culture in the early 1900's. ( )

I had mixed feelings about this book. I liked the book because the characters were developed, especially the main character Roy. The author went into detail about Roy by giving him a last name and explaining what he did and where he lived. The author states “Roy Tyle runs a garage down near Eatonville, Florida. Eatonville…now, that’s somewhere west of Christmas and north of Boogys Corner.” What I didn’t like about the book was the language. There was a lot of words and phrases that could be confusing for children. For example, “After and hour or so, he told the people he was ready to show his turbocharged, floating-ride, stabliated, lubricated, banjo-axled, wing-fendered, low-compression, noncollision car. The big idea from this story was that if you put your mind to anything you can achieve it even if others doubt you. ( )