Bikes for Sale

Maurice sells sunshiny drinks from his mobile lemonade stand: “No matter where he rode, he always had customers.” Lotta uses her bicycle cart to collect sticks, which she hands out for use as stilts and swords and limbo bars: “Everyone loves sticks.” And both of them ride their bikes all over town. OHora (Read the Book, Lemmings!) draws Maurice and Lotta and their animal friends in peaceful limes and olive greens splashed with turquoise and fuchsia. Friendly, woolly, and slightly disheveled-looking, the animals pad around in comfortable sneaks. Alliterative prose by Higgins (Everything You Need for a Treehouse) makes even the mishaps that ruin Maurice’s and Lotta’s carts sound poetic: “But what looked like a small stick was really a smashup... and what looked like some petals was really some peels.” A local bike genius salvages one bicycle from the duo’s two smashed ones, and they’re off for more adventures—this time, together. This quirky anticonsumerist fable imagines a town in which uses can be found for the things most people abandon, small enterprises flourish, and communal kindness makes life rich. Ages 3–5. Author’s agent: Rubin Pfeffer, Rubin Pfeffer Content. Illustrator’s agent: Sean McCarthy, Sean McCarthy Literary Agency. [em](Apr.) [/em]