The Alphabet and the Automobile

by Charles W. Queener

A dazzling array of racers, roadsters, sports cars, and sedans roars to life in the pages of this appealing smaller format hardcover book. Despite the seeminggly simple A-to-Z format, this book covers... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1893618773
• ISBN13: 9781893618770
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: David Bull Publishing
• Length: 48 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.9" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

SpeedReaders.info Review

The Alphabet and The Automobile by Murray L Smith, illustrations by Charles W Queener Typically A-B-C books are for little kids. It is obvious at first glance, however, that The Alphabet and The Automobile wasn't intended for those lively little minds with short attention spans. Those kiddos are captivated by A is for aardvark and a Blue Train for B is likely to elicit a squeal of "Oh, show me Thomas the Tank!" But right there on the same page where all the "legal" stuff is (like the ISBN and copyright info, etc) we gain enlightenment courtesy co-author/illustrator Chuck Queener. He explains the artwork in the book came, for the most part, "from a series...I originally created 1996-2000 for (co-author) Murray Smith's Louis Vuitton Classic at Rockefeller Center in NYC. Seeing the interest my grandsons took in looking at these pieces (prompted) their mother to suggest an alphabet book." Queener's brush strokes do more than merely put watercolor to paper--they sing, they talk--and others recognize this too for his paintings hang in some pretty prestigious collections. He's well steeped in all-things automotive having raced for a short time, and instructed others to drive competitively as a Jim Russell Racing School instructor. Before moving east, as he describes it, he "got involved with the Ferrari Owner's Club and this evolved into my founding Cavallino". Plus he's held staff positions at publications like Road & Track, Motor Trend, and Ski. There's more, but you get the idea. Co-conspirator in the creation of this book, Murray Smith, founded the aforementioned Louis Vuitton Concours and he's also collected cars, managed race teams, developed race cars and been an ad agency exec. His words accompany each of the Queener-created paintings and read much as though we were listening to the "man with the microphone" narrating a concours showfield--complete with a slip as my fellow SpeedReaders.info reviewer Sabu Advani pointed out in an email he sent me. Just as details sometimes get lost or tangled when coping with events unfolding on a showfield, somehow Smith and Queener neglected to acknowledge the car in Queener's painting is not the Speed Six Bentley with which Barnato raced the Blue Train. That aside, this modest volume features Chuck Queener's gorgeous illustrations, at least two per page, A to Z. And typical of David Bull-published books, it's beautifully printed--this in landscape format (which just seems so very logical given the shapes of the subject matter) and hardbound. So A is for Austin and Alfa, K for Kurtis, Miller, Maserati and others for M--you can discover for yourself what vehicles represent Q and X. This brings us back to imagining who might enjoy this book. We don't know the ages of Queener's grandsons when they were so taken with their grandpa's artwork. It's easy to imagine a youngster, already fascinated by "all things car" gravitating to it. The book would make a sweet gift for such a youngster or teen who would

Delightful and Fascinating, recommended by Road & Track

I just got this book because Road & Track had recommended it for the holidays and it is fun! Charles Queener's illustrations are zippy and beautifully rendered, and Coooper racer Murray Smith writes with an insider feel and a light touch and has picked interesting facts to foreground. Road & Track had said the Smith is a smart and fiesty guy; that all comes through. The original prices of the cars when they were built are included most of the time, and that's pretty jaw-dropping too.