Title Going Places Series --- Author Richard Scarry Illustrated by Richard Scarry Publisher Western Publishing Company - 1971 First Printing Western Publishing Company - 1965 Category Children Warnings None Main Characters Many Main Elements Anthropomorphic

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One of my fondly remembered childhood books, though reading it now as an adult it is actually kind of funny. The first two-thirds of the book consists of cute, short tales of various characters in different countries. Like Pierre, the Paris Policeman (a fox) or Mario, the Venetian Gondolier(a cat). Granted, the way each country is represented is rather stereotypical, such as a character called "Ah-Choo" for a Chinese panda, or a mountie raccoon for Canada, but kids don't care much for political correctness, they just like to look at the funny illustrations as cars drive around Rome out of control, or a cow gets stuck on top of a Swiss mountain. And there are some funny things only an adult would get, like in Holland where an overweight tourist gets used to plug up a leak in one of the dikes until a sandbag could be found.

The last third is a little boring, it just lists (with pictures) various forms of transportation, from WWI airplaines to boats, trains and space ships. The age of the book shows though, as there are certain things missing, like the current space shuttles, or some of the recent military planes like the stealth bomber, even cruise ships are missing.

But Richard Scarry's books are all fun with great illustrations. Don't just look at the images for how they tell the story, but look at what the various characters in the background are up to. You find people flying kites off the Notre Dame cathedral, or snakes in India that say "Charmed, I'm sure" as they dance to a snake charmer's flute.