Ride Beside Me

November 6, 2023
“My helmet is on, and/ the morning is bright”—and it seems like everybody the child narrator knows is riding some kind of cycle in this on-the-move chronicle of a largely self-propelled public. Setting out with Mom pedaling, a child in a bike seat notices a neighbor on a tall cycle and a mail carrier on a recumbent number. A pal waves from a bike pulled by a crowded tandem bicycle (“There’s Petunia, my classmate. She’s one kid of four./ They all ride the same bike, and there’s room for one more”). As a variety of cycles take to the streets, ridden by individuals of various skin tones, text lightly thumbs its nose at various internal combustion vehicles and their rather grim drivers (“I bet they wish they/ could be going this fast!”). Throughout, flat, bright gouache illustrations by Knisley (You Are New) largely focus on the growing, zooming group, conveying a sense of community and civic unanimity shown through handlebars, pedals, and wheels. “It’s like we’re a club,/ or a party... a sea!” says the exhilarated narrator, “an ocean of bicycles,/ all around me.” Ages 3–6. Agent: Holly Bemiss, Susan Rabiner Literary.

December 15, 2023
A mother and child bike with a community of fellow riders. As they set off for their morning ride, both are equipped with helmets and snacks, ready for an adventure through their town. Along the way, they meet up with neighbors and community members on different types of bicycles, from an extra-tall ride to a recumbent bike. The rhyming text is narrated by the child, who rides on a special seat on the front of Mom's bike. The book's title page includes a small flyer announcing "Group Ride, Saturday 9-5, up the hill and back down!" though the text doesn't make explicit mention of this group ride. As the pair pedal through town, they join forces with a slowly building wave of riders who move together safely. The young narrator comments how fresh the air smells when the road is empty of cars, a nod to the positive environmental impact of biking. With their bright, flat colors, the charming illustrations depict riders of various ages, skin colors, and sizes, and the endpapers are packed with examples of bicycles and riders. The child and mother are light-skinned. Upbeat verse highlights the benefits and joys of biking, and though it's clear that cycling is a more environmentally friendly transportation option compared with driving, the book never verges on didacticism. As pleasant and breezy as a bike ride. (Picture book. 3-5)

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 15, 2024
Preschool-Grade 1 At dusk, a mother and child set out on a bike ride, mom sporting a blue striped helmet while the kid, seated at the front of mom's bike, wears one decorated with hearts. As they go, they run into friends, greet strangers, and fly past gridlocked car traffic. Soon enough, mom and child, who narrate their journey in playful rhyming text, are surrounded by fellow riders (all, importantly, wearing helmets). Graphic novelist and picture-book author-illustrator Knisley (You Are New, 2019; Apple Crush, 2022) packs her boldly painted illustrations with detail that kids will want to stop and pore over, depicting a wide variety of people, families, and bicycles. (Even the book's endpapers feature dozens of unique riders.) Music pours out of a speaker as a rainbow of sound, pets sit in bike baskets, and sometimes pigeons get in the way--we're outside, after all. The message here is one of togetherness as a family and as a community, riding a bike for sheer pleasure, with no destination in mind, and kids (and grown-ups) will happily ride along.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.