I Like My Bike (I Like to Read)

There's good reason for the girl in the driver's seat of this breezy I Like to Read offering by Ferrari (No Honking Allowed!) to be enamored of her bike. With her helmet-wearing dog happily stashed in her basket aside a gift box, she zooms through the background of most spreads while foregrounded vehicles reveal their colorful cargo: a shark fills the back of a limo, a lion rides shotgun in a VW bus, a tiger reads a book in a mobile zoo cage, and a tiny mouse drives an enormous cheese truck. The bare-bones text consists of each driver appreciating their specific vehicle ("I like my truck" says a cactus driving a flowery transport), while loosely rendered mixed-media art fills in the story line. As a grandmotherly woman hitches several rides and a helicopter hovers overhead, the freewheeling cyclist eschews the highway for flower-filled country roads. Ferrari wryly drives home his tale's message in a visually telling finale revealing the vexed car, truck, and bus drivers snarled in traffic while the girl, in satisfyingly timely fashion, pedals to her festive destination foreshadowed by visual clues readers glean along the way. Ages 4-8. (Jan.)

PreS-Gr 1--Wheels are everywhere in this on-the-move title--sports cars, limousines, vans, bus, and many types of trucks. All of the passengers or drivers seem to like their rides, but no one is more enthusiastic than the cyclist. A bike gives a girl freedom to whizz along wet roads rarely traveled, zoom past crowded vans, enjoy country hills and busy city streets, or even pass those sitting in a traffic jam--speeding along with a favorite friend in the bike's basket. A mixed-media landscape reflects movement from road to road. Pencil, watercolors, and ink enhance digital scenes that flow from one driver to the next, while cartoon representatives of both flora and fauna drive their favorite vehicles. A simple repetitive refrain, "I like my...," reinforces the text, while images allow readers to search for details, like finding the bike rider and other recognizable characters who meet at a parkside birthday party. VERDICT A suggested general purchase for guided reading, the visual variety of images urges readers to infer changes in text.--Mary Elam, Learning Media Services, Plano ISD, TX