The Beetle and Me: A Love Story
Ages 11 up, 192 pages
A car can have its own magic…
Does being independent mean always going it alone?
from the flap:
“I'd like to know the nation's first red–haired, female, underage car mechanic,” says Billy Hatcher when he meets Daisy Pandolfi. And he does, over a summer and a fall when the two are brought together by days at the lake, stage crew for a school show, and auto shop. All the while, Daisy is hard at work in her family's barn, restoring the 1957 Volkswagen Beetle her father abandoned years ago.
At times the Beetle seems almost alive, and seems to thrive on the care and skill Daisy lavishes on it –– until the day she tries to impress Billy by driving it herself. There';s a bump, a bang, and suddenly, disaster. Refusing help from Billy, her mechanically–minded family, and even the handsome, guitar–playing son of an expert Beetle owner, Daisy struggles to find the problem that wrecked her engine.
Funny, poignant, and humming right along, this singular love story will stay will you long after the light turns green.
excerpts:
• It seems to me that I am the only one I know who has no car. I want a car. I need a car. No. I want a car that needs me. So what if I'm not old enough to drive? I'll get one. I'll have one.
• For the first time, there is something to be glad about in growing to five foot nine in ninth grade. I lift my bare feet on the pedals without resting my heels on the floor and feel the car's life through the clutch and gas and brake. It is so delicate and powerful, like Helen's dancing, like Daniel's guitar playing, like swimming in the dark, using all my senses to feel for the next movement and the next and the next.
• “…You ought to junk it, Daisy. Find another engine to pour your heart and soul into. That car's been sitting in that icehouse too long!" “How can you say that?” I'm shouting now, and as I hear this noise coming out of my mouth, something goes quiet inside my head. He's trying to hurt me because I've hurt him, pushing away his kiss, making his date just a ride, rebuilding a car engine before him –– and then refusing to let him help me when it blew. “It's as good as dead, Daisy,” Billy says. “You think you know so much about it all, and up to a point I'm willing to go along with you. But not anymore.”
from the reviewers:
“Two fiercely independent teenagers clash and bond in this wry, tempestuous automotive romance.” –– Kirkus Reviews (pointer review)
“The spirit of this charming first novel twinkles as surely as the purple VW it eulogizes.” –– Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Young shows many types of love: mature love, intense and unrequited teen love; and steady, slow–growing someday love.” –– School Library Journal (starred review)
from the fans:
“Each chapter is either filled with great suspense or intense drama.” –– Brian G.
“I had to tell you how much I loved it! Daisy and Helen and Imogene sounded so realistic –– so did Billy and all their friends.” –– Mary S.
“The Beetle and Me was cool because you made the Beetle like a person. I’ve noticed a lot of people love cars like Daisy loved the Beetle. Like I love my mom's minivan and my friend Julie loves Lulu, her family's Lumina. I sound kind of crazy, but it just sort of clicked for me.” –– J.P. G.
about the artwork:
Jane Wattenberg did the hardcover cover. Jane is so fab. She raises chickens in San Francisco and wrote and illustrated the amazing picture books Henny Penny and Never Cry Wolf! She sent me a washcloth with a wrench embroidered on it when The Beetle and Me came out. Hi, Jane!
Tim Jessell did a cover that shows up on the paperback on lots of websites. This cover never came out on the book, but I like it very much anyway. It really shows what Billy and Daisy –– and the Beetle, and a Connecticut winter night –– look like to me.
Lizzy Bromley painted the flying Beetle on the usual paperback cover. Lots of bounce to the ounce!
My pet count during this book:
one dog, one cat, two guinea pigs
They were Yogi, PuttPutt, Mrs. Mugglewump (Queen Mother of all Wumps) and Queen Gina Regina (Queen of all Guineas)
weird fact about this book:
It began as a picture book I wrote in a high school creative writing class. You can see a few views of this book here.
Check out the Awards and Honors for this book.
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