Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Year: 1980

Pages: 122

Type: Softcover

ISBN: 0-590-31609-5

“Beeeeeeeeeeeeep!.”

This is the fourth novelization of the Herbie the Love Bug movie franchise. The Love Bug, Herbie Rides Again, and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, came first.

The covers for these books are designed in the same way with a bold yellow box with the title within. The picture will either be a photo still from the movie or a cartoonish painting.

Each Herbie movie relies heavily on a comedy star to push the movie along. There has been Dean Jones and Buddy Hackett (The Love Bug), Ken Berry (Herbie Rides Again), Don Knotts (Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo), and in this go round, Harvey Corman and Cloris Leachman. Herbie Goes Bananas was the fourth and last movie of the original series and the least profitable.

The book is a basic retelling of the movie with some black and white screen captures. The quality of the paper is deplorable and so the images are yellowed and grainy. But fun!

Did you know that Herbie was thrown into the ocean in this story? It was during the time he went bananas! And while there, did you know that he met Hank the (not quite) Octopus from Finding Dory? It’s true! And I prove it in my post entitled FINDING DORY Easter Egg – Dory and Hank Swim with Herbie. Yup. I was even able to pinpoint where in the ocean he was dumped.

I love finding links between media for characters like Herbie!

Below is a picture of my wife and me posing with Herbie in happier times:

I also have a post on the site of a rare real-world siting of the little race car! Check it out: It’s called Found Disney – The REAL Herbie the Love Bug. He showed up outside a grocery store in a little town called Leamington, ON. He clearly had some cosmetic work done!

I would give this book a 4 Out of 5 Stars. It does well as a basic dime-store novel. But it is mostly aimed at youngsters and so might not appeal to adult Disney fans.