Why I Picked it Up: While browsing the library shelves, the bright colors of the cover art caught my eye. I loved the anticipation and the promise of adventure in the title too! If you built a car…what would it look like? What would it do? Where would it take you??
Why I Finished It: The promise of adventure was certainly fulfilled. In the first scene, you see the boy doing extensive research, and you see some of the various inspiration for his vehicle. Then, we transition to the boy in the backseat of the family car, and as his dad drives, he proceeds to describe in detail the car he would build if he could build a car. (Clearly, it would be nothing like the boring family car he’s riding in!) The boy is very thorough, thinking of everything from amenities and comfort (from a kid’s perspective!), to safety, to various travel environments. The pictures are full of details and you can catch something new with every read. The level of vocabulary and sentence structure of the rhyming text makes it really fun to read out loud for a wide range of ages, which is good because this one found it’s way into our collection and is an often-requested bedtime read!
I could definitely identify! I live with a very imaginative five-year-old, and he loves to build things (robots, houses, vehicles, etc.) with his Legos and other building sets and then bring it to life by telling me about their “features” – everything from water cannons to wheels that help things go super fast. After reading this book with my son, his imaginative play took on a whole new level. He thought the Instant Snack Bar was brilliant, and after we talked about which snacks we’d want it to make for us, he included one in every creation going forward. We also loved reading about the swimming pool in the car, so naturally, most of my son’s subsequent vehicles featured a pool of some kind.
Who I’d Give It To: Elementary teachers looking for connections between STEM and literacy, teachers (any grade, really) about to begin units of study on design or engineering, parents with creative kids to occupy over the summer!
Integration Ideas
The Engineering Process
If I Built a Car is a great book to foster the creative building spirit, whether your school does STEM projects or project-based learning, has a Makerspace, sets aside Genius Hour, or has come up with some other way kids can express their creativity.
In the engineering design process, once the problem has been identified, the brainstorming/imagining phase is so important! We are raising the problem solvers of the future, and we have to foster the creativity of the next generation! This brainstorming phase is where boundaries will be broken, where “realistic” will be thrown out the window in favor of radical innovation, where people will say it can’t be done but someone with a big imagination will decide to prove otherwise.
This is the mission of Imagination.org. They are also the home of the #cardboardchallenge. Check out this video about the original cardboard creation – Caine’s Arcade! Can’t you just see your class getting into a project like this??
Books about Creating Imaginative Things
It seems like I’ve run across several books lately in which the main character lets his or her imagination run wild. The result is something incredible, either completely fictitious, real, or a combination of the two where it starts in the imagination, but could possibly become reality. Here are a few:
- Violet the Pilot – Violet creates a handful of different flying machines using various things she has lying around her junkyard before finding one that she can enter in the competition. This book also has a great connection to makerspaces!
- If I Built a House, by Chris Van Dusen – Published a few years after If I Built a Car, Jack’s imagination turns from his car to his house, which is designed with a flying room, a race track room, and a giant slide!
- Secret Tree Fort, by Brianne Farley – Two sisters are sent outside to play, and while one just wants to read her book in peace, the youngest begins to design an elaborate tree fort that she describes in detail to try and tempt her older sister to play with her. It includes marshmallow and chocolate storage compartments, a crow’s nest and an underwater viewing area for whale watching, and it *might* be made of candy! It also just might have yet to be built…
- Dream Dog, by Lou Berger and David Catrow – Henry wants a dog, but his parents are allergic. One day he puts in his Imagination Helmet and dreams up the perfect dog – which comes to “life”! Waffle is the ultimate imaginary friend that does everything with Henry, even becoming friends with his new, real, live dog.
Creative Writing
On his website, author Chris Van Dusen says that this book came about because of a game he used to play with his brothers. As a family they would “drive three hours to visit our grandparents in Maine. This was before Gameboys and DVD players were invented and none of us could read in the car because it made us carsick. So we passed the time playing games like “What would you change on this car”. That’s what this book is all about – the power of imagination.”
Since reading If I Built a Car and If I Built a House with my son, we’ve had extensive conversations just like this. His current favorite thing to do is design his own airplane. It has plenty of rooms and different areas dedicated to each of his favorite activities. He has also designed one for each member of the family, and somehow there’s a way for airplanes to join together when we’re all going somewhere and he agreed to let me come play on his airplane if I’d let him use my kitchen! I have LOVED how these books have inspired this creative thinking.
Once a student has designed the perfect custom house or car (or airplane!), the next logical step is to write about it! They could write about the design, using descriptive vocabulary to communicate their ideas, or they could write about an adventure that they or another character has using that vehicle or place.
Share your students’ designs with us!
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