Wheelnuts! Craziest Race on Earth: Desert Dust Up

Wheelnuts! Craziest Race on Earth: Desert Dust Up by Knife & Packer (Scholastic Australia)
HB RRP $6.99
ISBN 978-1-74362-526-2
Reviewed by Jenny Heslop

From the creators of Freak Street (Knife & Packer) comes Wheelnuts!, a new series full of wacky racers and their quest for winners glory on the extreme race tracks dreamed up by eccentric billionaire Warren Wheelnut. Desert Dust Up kicks off the series with an action-packed race through the desert filled with adventure, danger and the evil Waylon ‘Wipeout’ Wheelnut who will stop at nothing to disrupt these races his successful older brother runs.

Beginning at Wheelie City, a glitzy holiday resort in the middle of the desert, six teams compete for first place, roaring through checkpoints as well as hazards such as the Mountains of Doom, the Gulch of a Thousand Mirages and huge robotic scorpions with enough rust venom to disable sixty cars.

Teams such as the Wheel Deal, super star couple Myley Twinkle and Dustin Grinner from boy band One Way Traffic, will appeal to the young readership this series is written for. The action and sneaky cheating is fun and non-stop. Reader will be barracking for their favourite team and booing the villains, Wipeout and his sidekick Dipstick.

The full glossy pages, with cartoon like illustrations, are colourful and vibrant.

It reminds me of the TV cartoon ‘Wacky Races’ that I loved as a child and I’m sure young, beginner and reluctant readers are going to devour this series.

As it’s the first in the series, Desert Dust Up has a very low price. Look out for the next extreme race in Spooky Smackdown. May the best team win!