Ride by Stephen Gammell Search Amazon for other books by or about Stephen Gammell. Rating: Reviewed by: John L. Hoh, Jr.

The author writes about his book:

When I was a youngster, I often went for rides. It was fun. Dad and Mom up in the front, and me and little sister in the back.

But what you see in this book never happened in our backseat.

Oh no. I just made this up.

Really.

You just know this is going to be a great kid's book.

Mom wants to go for a ride. Dad just says, "Good idea dear." The kids aren't too happy: "What a stupid idea." "Yeah…I hate that dumb car." (Maybe they should have ridden with my dad, where lunch was a loaf of bread, a pound of olive loaf, and a 2-quart bottle of warm soda.) The book goes over the top in this rolling sibling rivalry, where it's "No fair throwing car seats!" and "Well, no fair throwing furniture and stuff…Hey, that's MY bed!" It seems only the issuance of jam sandwiches brings peace…or does it?

"Are we there yet?" and the obvious shenanigans kids pull in a back seat are all here. The pictures are watercolors with the text seemingly placed with cut out letters blocking paint from the picture.

A word of warning, this book uses terms like "Poopy Face" and "Booger Breath." If you don't want to encourage name-calling among your children, use your parental/editorial rights to use more suitable expressions of disgust. Otherwise, the book brought back memories of the family rides in the car (in my family, it was a Rambler with five kids in the back seat-and ask mom about the 15 ketchup and pickle hamburgers!)