Member Reviews
This is a nice story for all types of readers. It exposes little people to other cultures and other styles of vehicles. The text is easy to read and focuses on sound effects, which makes it a great read aloud. The message is nice too - even though we are different, we can all work together. And we have lots in common too.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. i will purchase for my library.
"Honk, Honk, Beep Beep, Putter Putt!" by Rukhsana Khan is a whimsical book full of playful and repetitive language and set in a bustling Pakistani city. The main characters are a young boy named Ibraheem, his loyal cat Mitu, and Ibraheem's Baba, a rickshaw driver. As Baba navigates the bustling and noisy roads with Ibraheem and Mitu in tow the reader learns that the honks of each of the vehicles form their own language. The beep beeps and honk honks actually aren't chaos but part of a well-choreographed dance which allows everyone to get to where they want to go safely. Young readers will enjoy chiming in with the onomatopoeia. The colorful and inviting illustrations by Chaaya Prabhat are also capture the high energy of the story and the commute.
Between 4 & 5 stars. I loved the illustrations! I thought some of the text was rather small for my eyes. I do love the message of this book. As long as we all share the road and communicate (positively) with other drivers, we will all get where we are going safely! What a lovely message.
Written by Rukhsana Kahn and illustrated by Chaaya Prabhat.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Tundra Books, a division of Penguin Random House of Canada for approving my request to read the advance read copy in exchange for an honest review. 32 pages. publication date is 17 Sept 2024.
"Honk Honk Beep Beep, Putter Putt!" by Rukhshana Khan is a really cute children's picture book about the horn sounds of vehicles as drivers communicate with one another. It is scheduled to be published in September 2024.
Chaaya Prabhat is the illustrator, and the pictures are colorful and detailed, helping to communicate the story. All the vehicles have designs of flowers and birds on the outside.
Baba (Dad) invites his son, Ibraheem, and their cat, Mitu, to join him on an important mission. Off they go in their gold colored ricksaw. All the vehicles have different sounding horns, which are used to communicate with other drivers on the road. They take a driving trip across town. We see lots of traffic and all of the vehicles are beeping and tooting.
The author's note at the end explains that she first saw drivers using horns as a sort of language in Guyana, South America, but then she also saw it in Pakistan, India, Iran, and South Africa. Drivers use their horns to let other drivers know where they are. A quick tap on a horn can indicate, "Do you see me?" "Please let me in!" and, "Thanks!"
My concern when reading it was that we don't have any rickshaws in the US (because I've never seen any), but a bit of online research indicates that many cities do have some rickshaws AKA Tuk Tuks now.
This is a nice book for young kids. Good opportunity for readers or kids' listening to make sound effects.
Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin Random House Canada, Tundra books, and author Rukhshana Khan for providing this ARC e-book so I could give you my honest review.
This is a fun, rhythmic book about traffic rules and safety. It is a joyful change of pace for kiddos who are obsessed with transportation, and would be a blast for a read aloud where the kiddos repeat the sounds of each vehicle navigating the busy streets. Not the mention the vibrant illustrations that celebrate the beautifully decorated trucks and colorful cities of the author’s native Pakistan.
In this delightful picture book a Pakistanian boy joins his Baba on a drive through the city. The author gives life to all the vehicles on the road through the different noises they use to communicate. The illustrations are bright and have so many details that little ones will spend hours pouring over. This book gives a great message that we all share the road!
I was super excited to check out Honk Honk, Beep Beep, Putter Putt, as I work in an elementary school setting and would have loved to share about it to my fellow teacher friends. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t load onto my Kindle correctly. All of the pictures were jumbled or cut off. Hopefully I will be able to check it out in a correct format at a later date! I went ahead with a five star review because the illustrations are vibrant and I believe it would catch children’s attention.
This was so much fun! I love books with words that help you hear what's happening, and it really felt like I was in noisy traffic. It was also a lot of fun because the kids are riding in a rickshaw with all the other vehicles, and the focus is on how the drivers of every kind of vehicle are watching out for each other.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this
My 5 year old says it is “good”. He’s still working on his reviewing ;) He also said “it rocks and I like it”. He said “it always said ‘everybody shares the road’ and ‘honk honk’.
He was fully engaged in the story. The formatting wasn’t great. It was colourful - and great artwork. I like the diversity exposure - we’ve never read a book with a rickshaw in it!
Overall, a good little kid book, with a great message to start learning early to share the road.
Author Rukhsana Khan’s delightful picture book is a vibrant adventure.
The colorful illustrations capture the excitement of a boy’s journey with his father through city streets, delivering a heartwarming message of sharing and respect.
The action-packed storyline makes for an engaging, short read, complemented by the author’s insightful note on her experiences navigating big city traffic around the world.
Thankyou to author Rukhsana Khan, Penguin Random House Canada imprint Tundra Books, and NetGalley for this wonderful opportunity to read this fun children’s story.
Charlene 📚🤗🌸 @lastnownext
This was so cute! I love the art style so much and all the different horn sounds and the ways vehicles/drivers communicate to ensure a safe experience for everyone on the road
This picture book, about driving a motorized rickshaw in an undisclosed country is so bright and colorful. The child narrating the story loves how all the cars communicate with each other with a series of honks and beeps, as they go along the road.
I love the detail of the designs of each vehicle, whether it be the rickshaw, or the bus or the truck. They are all dressed up with painted flowers and birds, and designs. The funniest bit is when everyone stops because there is a toad in the road that no one wants to run over.
This book would be fun for any child to read, with its repetition of the horn sounds, and the colorful trucks and buses. It would also introduce them to a world beyond North America where the rules of the road are courtesy and horns.
And if you wonder how there could be such a place, the author says that she comes from Pakistan where this is the way it works. And that she has been to many other places, and as she puts it, people drive with their ears as much as with their eyes. She says the use of the horn is the ingenious language of India, Iran, South Africa and South American.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is coming out on the 17th of September 2024.
Thanks, NetGalley for the ARC ebook. This was a fun, colorful story about how cars talk to each other with their horns. My kids enjoyed the story and I enjoyed the author’s note about traffic in Pakistan. I highly recommend for families with children.
I loved the unique and cleverness to the format of this story with both its writing style as well as the layout of the pictures to go with. Cute story. Age appropriate. Easy read. Fun.
This was so cute. I read it aloud to my four year old and she got a kick out of it. Now she’s running around yelling honk honk beep beep. I also appreciated the aspect of it’s a different culture than my own and I loved that everyone has to share the road :) cute book
A cute book about the sounds of various vehicles as a child goes with his dad on deliveries. This is full of fun noises and would be great for any budding car enthusiasts!
Ibraheem and his cat Mitu join Baba on his rickshaw trip through the city. They are joined along the way by different vehicles, all having a horn that sounds different. They must navigate the hazards along the way, one even being a toad. This has fun rhyming, repeating storyline that is fun to read aloud. I love the author’s note at the end about different cities and different safety rules. This would be great for your vehicle loving child!