A review by quinn_0611
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming

4.0

Review originally posted on Quinn's Book Nook

There were two reasons on why I decided to read Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming. The first reason was because I had read some more emotional books lately, and I needed something easy and cute to cleanse my palate. The second reason was because DAVID TENNANT (yes, that needed all caps!) narrated this audiobook. I really knew nothing about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I’ve never seen the movie, or really looked into the book. All I knew was that it was about a car, and that it was written by the same man who created James Bond. This sponanteous decision turned out be to perfection.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is most definitely a children’s book. It’s not middle grade, and I think you need to have an appreciation of children’s literature to enjoy it as an adult. In fact, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang reminded me a lot of Roald Dahl books, with the adventurous children, and the unexplained magical aspects to the story.

My favorite part of this book was the personality that Fleming gave to the car, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I always love when an author can give a lot of personality to an inanimate object, and perhaps there’s more the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang than we know. The other characters in the book were fun, too. Commander Pott, the father, was such a fun character, and I imagine that children would love to have someone so unconventional as the Commander as a father. And Jeremy and Jemima, the children, are definitely characters that children can relate to. I can’t say that any character is extremely developed, but there is definitely a personality to each character.

I haven’t seen the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but I think that the film is a bit different from the book. So if you are familiar with the movie, you might be surprised with the difference. I’m going to try to watch the movie this weekend. It’s on Netflix!

I’m a huge David Tennant fan. He’s my favorite Doctor, and he just seems like a really intelligent, nice guy. I listened to him narrator How to Train You Dragon by Cressida Cowell, which was a wonderful experience, so I was really excited to listen to Tennant narrate Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He uses an English accent, not his Scottish accent, and it really fit the story. I think adults and children would like his narration. At the end of the audiobook there were a few minutes of interview with David Tennant, and I really enjoyed that as well.

If you enjoy children’s literature and Roald Dahl’s books, I think you would really enjoy Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It’s an very quick read. In fact, the audiobook was only a few hours long. But I really enjoyed those two hours.