If I Built a Car
A teacher’s look at why this book belongs in the The Why-Askers stage.
Why it fits The Why-Askers (for preschoolers whose every page sparks a question)
Jack designs a dream car with a pool, a snack bar, and autopilot. Invention framed as pure joy, in Seussian bounce. The gateway to a lifetime of 'if I built...' thinking.
What makes it special
Van Dusen bottles pure invention energy: Jack's car has a pool, a snack bar, and zero regard for feasibility. The retro-futurist gouache gleams like a 1950s ad from a better timeline. It gives engineering the emotional register of a daydream — which is where all real engineering starts.
About Chris Van Dusen
Chris Van Dusen writes and illustrates picture books from coastal Maine, painting in gouache on illustration board. He is the author-illustrator of the If I Built... books and the illustrator of Kate DiCamillo's Mercy Watson series.
Van Dusen drew for teen and children's magazines — Nickelodeon, Family Fun, Disney Adventures — for more than a decade before his first book, Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee, appeared in 2000. He says If I Built a Car grew out of a game he used to play as a child.
Also by this author: If I Built a House · If I Built a School · The Circus Ship
More from “What If and Why Not”
This book is part of The Best Books for Preschoolers: 30 Teacher Picks (The Why-Askers) in our guide The Best Children’s Books by Age — 120 books chosen by the Montessori-certified teachers at Creative Minds Montessori in Frisco, TX. Come see how we build readers →
Nobody paid for this review — not the author, not the publisher — and the store link above earns us nothing. Our only interest is the reader this book fits.