Taxi! Taxi! - Softcover

Best, Cari

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0531070840 ISBN 13: 9780531070840

Publisher: Orchard Books, 1997

Synopsis

Tina spends each Sunday with her father, a taxicab driver

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 1-2-A story with plenty of subtext and a premise that will strike a chord with many readers. On Sundays, Tina eagerly waits for her Papi to drive up in his taxi and carry her off. Some Sundays he doesn't appear, but this time he does-"'At your service, se?orita.'" He bows her into the front seat and cruises past the houses and stores of her neighborhood, out of the city and to a farm. Tina wishes her parents lived together, but when she sees another little girl with her mother and father, she reflects that she has two families: "Papi and me. And Mama and me." On the way back, Papi picks up a carload of neighbors who offer testimonials ("'You have some papi!'"), and then drops her off at her mother's doorstep: "'Adios, se?orita mia.'" The girl's happy tone is reflected in Gottlieb's simple oil pastels. Smiling figures are scattered across flat, brightly colored fields; roads and buildings are depicted with softened, freely drawn lines. The book's sunny mood might seem to be at odds with the less-than-happy situation, and the validation of Papi's character is too heavy handed to be convincing, but Tina's unvarying love for both of her parents rings true.
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

Tina and her mother share an apartment in a bustling, close-knit urban neighborhood where there's always something interesting to watch. Tina especially loves Sundays, the day her father, a taxi driver, comes to visit. Today's outing features a picnic at a farm in the country followed by an "always room for one more" taxi ride back home, scooping up Tina's neighbors along the way. Best, a fine storyteller, effortlessly weaves Spanish words and phrases into her lively tale (Tina is Latino). This is not a "problem" book; although Tina's sadness with her parents' separation is evident, the story focuses on the relationship between her and her father, a relationship that is both sweet and genuine. Stylistically, Gottlieb's vibrant, intensely colored illustrations might be classified as post-modern primitive; artistically, they both enlarge and enrich the tale. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Orchard Books
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0531070840
• ISBN 13: 9780531070840
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Gottlieb Dale