Mystery Driver: The Story of Alice Johnson and the First Soap Box Derby

Alice is determined to build the fastest car in the boys-only soap box derby in this empowering true tale of ingenuity, engineering, and the joy of creating your dreams.



Alice loves swooping through the clouds in Daddy’s biplane. She and he even flew through a howling tornado when Alice was only three! Grounded now by the Great Depression, Alice is yearning for more thrilling adventure when she sees a newspaper ad for a soap box derby where kids will race their own homemade, gravity-powered cars. Excitement is spreading like prairie fire! But wait—the race is only for boys? Alice knows she can be a race-car driver, too. So she and Daddy work hard in his machine shop to build the speediest car they can. Ball bearings let the wheels spin smoothly, rubber tires absorb bumps in the pavement, sleek surfaces slice through the air, and the crowning glory: an airplane’s nose cone! The day of the race, forty thousand people turn out to watch hundreds of boys compete—and one Mystery Driver. At the crack of the starter pistol, Alice flies toward the checkered flag . . . Get ready for an action-packed story complete with fascinating back matter that digs deeper into the science and people involved.