Wheel Away!

A bicycle wheel rolls away, pa-da-rump, pa-da-rump, pa-da-rump-pump-pump, in a rhymed text with a simple theme. It bounces, rolls and leaps through each spread, offering noisy rhymes in the background. The wheel goes ``Between the pig pens (oink oink oink) / On top of the hens (boink boink boink) . . . . Over paint cans (squirt squirt squirt) / Under paint man (splirt splirt splirt).'' The wheel slows as it goes up a hill, then pauses and twirls back down the path, past all the creatures and locations shown in previous spreads, until it thumps back to the bicycle's owner. Hurd's pictures mix collage and paint, as vibrant and out of the ordinary as Dodds's sprightly text, giving the book an appealing exuberance. Toddlers and beginning readers will be delighted by the display of colors and written approximation of sounds. Ages 3-6. (Mar.)