Gus's Garage

January 9, 2017
Returning to the vehicular focus of Bang and Who’s Driving? Timmers introduces a string of animals who drive quirky cars and a good-natured pig mechanic who makes them even quirkier. Gus has a one-pump garage in the middle of nowhere and a stash of greasy, worn-out parts. “Whatever will he use them for?” Timmers wonders. A rhino in biker gear drives up on a too-small scooter: “Gus, this seat—I’m overflowing.” Gus always says the same thing: “Let’s see. I have some bits and bobs./ This goes with that. There. Just the job!” A patched-up armchair, an extra rear wheel, and the rhino has a comfy new seat. To warm Gina, a giraffe, in her convertible, Gus combines a wood-burning stove with a stack of metal drums to make a towering heating system. A walrus gets hydration from a rooftop bathtub, and a penguin’s roadster gains a pink refrigerator to keep her cool. Amid all the fun, the emphasis is on imaginative tweaking, reusing things, and cheerful help, selflessly given. Mechanically minded readers will want to do what Gus does; others will wish he lived next door. Ages 3–6.

January 1, 2017
Animal drivers in wacky vehicles visit the titular garage for special repairs.Clever Gus, a smiling pig on two legs in green coveralls, salvages lots of unusual objects, just in case. When Rico, a biker rhinoceros, putt-putts in on his scooter complaining about his inadequate seat, Gus has just the thing. He replaces it with a big green easy chair, and Rico putt-putts happily away. Next, Gina the giraffe pulls up in a compact yellow car, colorful scarves covering her long neck. She needs "warm air." Gus comes up with a stack of oil barrels, with a hole cut out for her head, heated by a stove connected to the barrels by several pipes. Walter the walrus, in a small blue-and-white car with an open sunroof, has the opposite problem. He's too hot. Gus fixes a tub atop the car, where Walter can cool off. Timmers' perspective is unvarying, depicting Gus and his garage to the left of the gutter and his customers on the right. This allows readers to notice that the huge heap of junk at the far left grows smaller over the course of the day as Gus raids his stash of "bits and bobs" to make the repairs with Rube Goldberg-esque flair. The repetitive, rhyming text appears below, its refrain "This goes with that. There. Just the job!" one children will be joining in on before long. Supersaturated hues and maximum automotive whimsy make this one to pore over. (Picture book. 3-6)

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January 1, 2017
Grades K-3 The author of Franky (2016) now offers another tale for young tinkerers and gadget-lovers. Each item in the pile of discarded junk that Gusportrayed as an increasingly grimy pig in mechanics' overallskeeps out behind his service station comes in handy as one motorist after another wheels in needing a fix: Rico the rhino, for example, is too big for his Vespa ( Gus, this seatI'm overflowing ). Gina the giraffe is too cold in her roofless Volkswagen, Walter the walrus and Miss P. the penguin are too hot, and Henry the hare's delivery truck needs a power boost. Whatever the problem, Gus has a patterned response ( Let's see. I have some bits and bobs. / This goes with that. There. Just the job! ) and a clever solution. Come nightfall, Gus simultaneously washes and wheels himself home on a bicycle-shower that incorporates a last few bits and bobs. Recycling with flair: just the job!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2017
Pig mechanic Gus spends the day solving various animal friends' car troubles: e.g., when rhino Rico complains that he's "overflowing" on his motor scooter's tiny seat, Gus rigs it with an armchair. The rhymes are toe-tappers, and readers will delight in determining which item from Gus's hodgepodge junk pile (a painstakingly rendered heap by Timmers) will do the job.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)