Saturday at the Garage

A girl narrates her day as she helps her dad out at his garage on a Saturday. From pumping gas, to selling candy, to chatting with the locals, readers get an idealized taste of running a small town garage and gas station.

Utilizing a cheery tone that occasionally flirts with folksy, at its heart Saturday at the Garage is a slice-of-life picture book. Readers looking for action or conflict will be disappointed, but thoughtful readers who enjoy setting and place will enjoy it. It is clear that the author tried to add interest by hinting at the presence of an elf, but, while it appears on the odd page spread, it mostly feels out of place. While the plot is somewhat lackluster, the vocabulary shines. Young readers will encounter numerous rare words that they have never heard before.

The art features a soft colour palette and likely uses digital illustration. That the scenes are not busy focuses attention on the story and reinforces the gentle, pleasant tone of the narrative. While the pictures do a good job of reflecting the text, sadly they don’t add much to it either. In fact, the elf only ever appears when explicitly mentioned in the text which seems like a lost opportunity. For example, there could have been a search-and-find element or the elf could have been doing things in surreptitious ways, like sneaking food, hiding tools, helping with repairs, rather than just standing there

With the exception of one customer who is possibly of Asian heritage, all characters are white. No one is depicted with a visible disability. One character is fat and his body build is refreshingly incidental to both his personality and the story. Pronouns of non-human entities (the sun and the elf) default to male.

While not exciting, Saturday at the Garage will appeal to car lovers and fans of gentle day-in-the-life books.