By Frank Cottrell Boyce.  Grade A.

Everyone’s favorite flying car shifts into another dimension as the intrepid Tooting family zooms back and forth through time.
When the Tootings return to Zobrowski Terrace at the end of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again, they find that “home” is looking a lot like Jurassic Park. But this is no theme park — a very real and very hungry T- rex is charging them! Thanks to Dad’s inadvertent yanking of Chitty’s “Chronojuster” lever, the spirited car has ushered them back to prehistoric times, where the family (and especially Baby Harry) make a narrow escape. But Chitty has a mind of her own, and the Tootings will get an unexpected tour of exciting times and places from Prohibition-era New York (where Chitty wants to compete in the famous Prix d’Esmerelda’s Birthday Cake race) to the lost city of El Dorado and back again, with misadventures and surprise stowaways along the way. Get ready for a hilarious high-flying adventure, with celebrated author Frank Cottrell Boyce behind the wheel.

The book is about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a magical car which can fly, swim, become a submarine and travel back and forth in time. We watch it journey to different time lines to meet different people, all having great significance in the car’s life.

When normal cars break down, they stop in the middle of the road. Chitty is not a normal car, so when it breaks down it takes you into ancient times to fight the dragons which are set upon eating you.

This time it is the Tooting family who are in the car when it breaks down and they land in the dinosaur era. The family bravely fights the hungry Tyrannosaurus who want to feed his hungry stomach and manages to get away. They  were trying to save the world from the evil Nanny and Tiny Jack and are looking for The Potts family who were the previous owners of the car. They set the car to 1966 but they soon find out that Chitty has a mind of her own. Chitty lands them in a different place yet again, for yet another adventure. This time it is New York, only but not the time they want to be in. It turns out that Chitty wants to meet someone else, a Count Louis Zborowski , a race car driver and the man Chitty happens to be in love with.

Their adventures are far from over. They compete in a race, get tied up by evil people, run away from the police and finally land in El Dorado – a place made of gold – where the Queens try to steal their car and in the end disassemble it into small small pieces..

The adventures go on and each time all the members of The Tooting family brainstorm together and manage to get out safely and charge ahead.

The story is interesting, easy to understand and full of adventures. It also has plenty of illustrations to keep the young readers interested. The plot line is simple, with plenty of moralistic messages, including those of unity and love.  Throughout the whole story, the author manages to highlight the fact that The Tooting family is trying to save the world. They are fighting evil and trying to replace it with love, affection and harmony.

An amazing job by Frank Cottrell Boyce. Leaves you wishing you had read something this good in your childhood.