Ian Fleming’s treasured classic soars in a deluxe edition featuring John Burningham’s vibrant, full-color original illustrations. Famous for creating James Bond, Ian Fleming also loved fast cars — and this passion inspired him to write his only children’s book, penned for his young son, Caspar. Published fifty years ago in 1964,  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car  introduced the world to the thrilling adventures of the “crackpot” Pott family and the flying car with a mind of her own.  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang  became an instant bestseller that has been reinvented as a musical and a film (with a screenplay co-written by Roald Dahl) and has also inspired three sequels written by Frank Cottrell Boyce. To honor half a century of  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,  Candlewick Press presents a full-color gift edition ready to zoom straight into hearts of a new generation. There’s no improving on perfection—in this case Fleming’s adventure story (featuring the unconventional family Pott and their magically refurbished motorcar) with the original, transcendent Burningham illustrations, first published in 1964. The confiding informality of the storyteller’s voice; the nonstop and immensely child-pleasing adventures; the spunk of young Jeremy and Jemima; and of course the ingenious personality of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang herself—all combine to make an ideal family read-aloud. This handsome fiftieth-anniversary gift edition is ... so very welcome. —Horn Book This is why the book holds up, 50 years after its original publication: its sense of the world as an inexplicable but also miraculous place. —Los Angeles Times Online Ian Fleming  worked as a journalist, a stockbroker, and an assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence in the Admiralty in London during World War II, a job that amply qualified him for writing internationally best-selling thrillers about super-spy James Bond. Ian Fleming wrote  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang  for his young son and died in 1964, two months before the book was first published. John Burningham  is one of the world’s most beloved children’s book creators. His work has received countless awards, including two Kate Greenaway Medals and a  Boston Globe–Horn Book  Honor for  It’s a Secret!  With Candlewick Press, he is also the author-illustrator of  Tug-of-War  and  The Way to the Zoo  and the author of  There’s Going to Be a Baby,  illustrated by his wife, Helen Oxenbury. His work is featured in the collectors’ volume  John Burningham . He lives in London.