Fifi and Friends: The Super Car Race

Fifi and Friends: The Super Car Race

Tamara Ecclestone Rutland

Amy Zhing

New Frontier, 2024

32pp., hbk., RRP $A26.99

9781923145078

Fifi is a little girl who LOVES nothing more than tinkering about in her go-kart, whether it’s fitting a new engine, inflating the tyres or painting it a shiny new pink. She’s been really busy lately because there is a super-car race this afternoon and all her friends have put in a special effort to decorate their cars… hers is like a pink cloud while Zac ‘s resembles a triceratops, Hope’s a unicorn and Mario’s is a cheetah.  Only Nathan, who is compelled to win at everything keeps is covered till the start.  Fifi’s little sister prefers dogs so she is going to watch.

There is great excitement and anticipation as race time draws near, but will it be a fair race – or does Nathan’s competitiveness overpower the fun and friendship?

This is a colourful, action-packed picture book for young readers that has characters that they will recognise among their own friendship group, and focuses on the bonds of cooperation, inclusivity and mutual support that keep them strong.  The illustrations are eye-catching, rich in detail and distinctive in style, offering lots of scope to help the child connect them to the story particularly in the race scenes where they can not only connect the characters to their cars but also learn ordinal words like first, last, next, after and so on.   They could also talk about Nathan’s perspective, perhaps what underpins it,  as well as what they would do if they saw a friend in trouble but helping might prevent them realising a dream.

These days, there should be no surprise that Fifi’s dream is to be a mechanic so there is scope for the perennial “when-you-grow-up” discussion but personally, I think children will derive a lot of fun looking at the features of each car and working out they were made, then drawing what their dream go-kart would look like.