Title The Love Bug Series --- Author Mel Cebulash Cover Art --- Publisher Scholastic - 1973 First Printing Scholastic - 1969 Category Humour Warnings None Main Characters Herbie, Jim, Carole, Tennessee, Peter Thorndyke Main Elements Anthropomorphic

Jim - the racing driver who was a failure - until Herbie came along
Carole - a beautiful girl who knows more about cars and racing than most men
Peter Thorndyke - Jim's - and Herbie's - worst enemy
Tennessee - the "hippie" mechanic who really understands Herbie
Herbie - the little car with a mind - and a heart - of its own

This is one of those rare cases where one can say the movie is better than the book, which is usually the case when the book is based on the movie. It usually turns out to be a scene by scene description of the movie, and this book is no different. So it wasn't exactly a great read. However, as I had not seen the movie in many, many years, it was kind of fun to read the book and be reminded of the movie.

The story revolves around a white Volkswagon Beetle named Herbie that, for unknown reasons, appears to have a mind of its own. He also has likes and dislikes, befriending a race car driver named Jim and his mechanic Tennessee. On the other hand the little car *really* doesn't like Peter Thorndyke, the owner of an expensive car dealership and race car driver in his own right. As per any Disney movie, hilarious chaos soon ensues.