My Sister's Rusty Bike

Availability: In Stock. Ships from and sold by Boone Bridge Books.com.

Hardcover | Other formats

Description
A young narrator takes a humorous tour across America on his sister's rusty bike, inroducing readers to a wealth of peculiar characters he's met along the way. From Maybelle Bean in Mississippi to Conroy Hicks in Louisiana, the characters celebrate the diversity of America. Jim Aylesworth's catchy rhyme, along with Richard Hull's fun, quirky artwork, create a rollicking travelogue that kids are bound to love. Full color.

Reviews

Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.

Publisher’s Weekly (08/19/1996)
Aylesworth takes readers on a preposterous, rollicking romp as his narrator introduces the eccentric individuals he visits during a cross-country bike ride. The breezy verse rolls off the tongue as smoothly as the protagonist's wheels whir: in West Virginia, he drops in on a gal named Dee Dee Lee, who "loves her pink pet sheep./ At night they sleep in bed with her/ In one warm, woolly heap." From Massachusetts to California, the traveler discovers residents with uncommonly amusing pets, among them bow tie-wearing pigs who dance jigs, goats who sing country tunes and pampered toads who eat their flies a la mode. Easily matching the lighthearted humor of the text, the gouache art offers a playful spin on American primitivism. Hull (previously teamed with Aylesworth for The Cat & The Fiddle & More) here employs an unusually rich palette in his stylized renderings of these comical characters. Kids will follow this cyclist happily--over and over again. Ages 5-8. (Sept.)

School Library Journal (10/01/1996)
Gr 1-3--A cross-country trip on a rusty bike begins in Massachusetts, where the teenaged narrator discovers Pat McDuff and her purple-furred felines, and ends in California, where Ike O'Day owns a snow white crow that can "speak in rhyme and quote from Edgar Poe." Along his meandering route, the young man meets a variety of unusual inhabitants and their even more peculiar pets. The rhyming text of this tall tale repeats a basic eight-line stanza that establishes location, introduces an eccentric personality, and concludes with a description of his or her fantastical and talented animals. After the first several "stops" en route, however, the repetition becomes tiresome and the occasionally forced rhyme more apparent. The lackluster conclusion leaves readers as flat as a punctured tire. Hull's folk-style gouache illustrations capture the homey feel of the text and children will enjoy the animal antics. While the setting appropriately reflects Americana, the people and pets are sometimes too static for the action-packed verse; expressions can be wooden and are sometimes even fierce. The rather muddy palette dampens exuberance, as well. Although this trip traverses the continent, the cyclist encounters neither racial nor ethnic diversity. Children might be tempted to create their own itinerary and verses to extend the concept--but whether they will pedal along to the final destination is in doubt.--Carol Ann Wilson, Westfield Memorial Library, NJ

ISBN: 0689317980 | EAN: 9780689317989
Publisher: Atheneum Books  | Publication Date: September, 1996

Additional Information