Review by Booklist Review
Follow a young girl on her red bike, with her dog in the basket, as she speeds happily through brightly colored city streets. She likes her bike, and everyone she passes enjoys their transportation as well. The tiny mouse likes his big rig full of cheese. The monkey and lion like their 1960s van. And the city driver likes his big yellow bus full of odd creatures. Everyone rides along happily until the girl reaches her destination: a birthday party in the park. There are only eight distinct words contained in the book (I, like, my, bike, car, van, bus, and truck), so at the easiest tier of beginning readers (Level A), it has a very distinct audience and would be a wonderfully satisfying experience for first-time or struggling readers. The artwork, a vibrant and highly textured mix of watercolors and pastels, is delightfully whimsical, with charming surprises like a cactus driving a truck and a contented seal chauffeuring a shark around in the back of a limousine. Guaranteed to get those reading gears turning.--Becca Worthington Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
There's good reason for the girl in the driver's seat of this breezy I Like to Read offering by Ferrari (No Honking Allowed!) to be enamored of her bike. With her helmet-wearing dog happily stashed in her basket aside a gift box, she zooms through the background of most spreads while foregrounded vehicles reveal their colorful cargo: a shark fills the back of a limo, a lion rides shotgun in a VW bus, a tiger reads a book in a mobile zoo cage, and a tiny mouse drives an enormous cheese truck. The bare-bones text consists of each driver appreciating their specific vehicle ("I like my truck" says a cactus driving a flowery transport), while loosely rendered mixed-media art fills in the story line. As a grandmotherly woman hitches several rides and a helicopter hovers overhead, the freewheeling cyclist eschews the highway for flower-filled country roads. Ferrari wryly drives home his tale's message in a visually telling finale revealing the vexed car, truck, and bus drivers snarled in traffic while the girl, in satisfyingly timely fashion, pedals to her festive destination foreshadowed by visual clues readers glean along the way. Ages 4-8. (Jan.) c Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Wheels are everywhere in this on-the-move title-sports cars, limousines, vans, bus, and many types of trucks. All of the passengers or drivers seem to like their rides, but no one is more enthusiastic than the cyclist. A bike gives a girl freedom to whizz along wet roads rarely traveled, zoom past crowded vans, enjoy country hills and busy city streets, or even pass those sitting in a traffic jam-speeding along with a favorite friend in the bike's basket. A mixed-media landscape reflects movement from road to road. Pencil, watercolors, and ink enhance digital scenes that flow from one driver to the next, while cartoon representatives of both flora and fauna drive their favorite vehicles. A simple repetitive refrain, "I like my.," reinforces the text, while images allow readers to search for details, like finding the bike rider and other recognizable characters who meet at a parkside birthday party. VERDICT A suggested general purchase for guided reading, the visual variety of images urges readers to infer changes in text.-Mary Elam, Learning Media Services, Plano ISD, TX © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Slow and steady wins the traffic jamespecially when riding in the bike lane. With a pup, a ball, and a wrapped present in their basket, a bespectacled human cyclist with long black hair exclaims "I like my bike." The cyclist pedals on, and subsequent page turns introduce readers to humans or animals (and one cactus) who drive (and claim to like) their car, van, bus, or truck. The repetition of "I like my" followed by a noun creates a predictable pattern. Despite the individual preferences for particular modes of transportation, though, none are as joyful as the human cyclist. While the other commuters are stuck in a traffic jam in the background, the cyclist swiftly makes it to their destination. With an impressive economy of language, the story contains only 36 wordseight of which are unique. A deeper story exists in Ferrari's mixed-media art. Executed with textures characteristic of paint, ink, and pencil, the style changes from page to page. On one page, readers will see a black-outlined cityscape against a broad swath of color; on the next, the environment might appear abstract or collaged. The medium trim size allows for group sharing, making this as much read-aloud as early reader. Readers can spot the cyclist in every double-page spread. Unfortunately, the only human character of color in the book is cast as a bus driver. Concise, pedal-powered prose for the earliest of independent readers. (Picture book/early reader. 2-5) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
