cover image Hello, Bicycle!

Hello, Bicycle!

Ella Boyd, illus. by Daniel Griffo. Marshall Cavendish/Pinwheel, $12.99 (24p) ISBN 978-0-7614-5964-4

Boyd's debut centers on a girl who trades her babyish blue plastic tricycle for a red two-wheeler: "Bye, Bye, Blue./ Hello, red!/ Shiny paint./ Smokin' tread." Pared-down couplets chronicle the girl's maiden voyage on the bike, which requires some careful navigation ("Miss the rock./ Skim the hole./ Squish the hose./ Dodge the pole"), but proceeds remarkably, and perhaps unrealistically, smoothly. Twice Boyd breaks form to use a bit of repetition that echoes the bouncy ride of a bicycle down the street: "Down the hill I bump, bump, bump./ Feel it on my rump, rump rump" is later followed by "My little heart goes thump, thump, thump,/ when I make the jump... bump, rump." Griffo's brassy, digital cartoons have a kid-pleasing Nickelodeon vibe and feature electric colors and skewed perspectives, giving the heroine a cheerful, textured, and fully realized world to explore. Though the girl is in constant motion, there's little action to the story; it's best suited to those just starting to read%E2%80%94as well as ride%E2%80%94on their own. Ages 4%E2%80%937. (Sept.)