My sister's rusty bike / by Jim Aylesworth ; illustrated by Richard Hull.

America's a big country full of all sorts of different people. Our hero in this book tells us about a dozen or so he met during a zany, zigzag trip around the country on his sister's rusty bike. As he says: I met some gals. I met some guys. I met their critters too. And though you may be dubious, I swear that it's all true. Whether the truth gets stretched a bit or not, children will be amused by such regular folks as Pat McDuff, whose cats are, well, rather different. In Granite Falls, Minnesota, Jojo Jones's pet toads would be the envy of any toad in the land. And then there's Benny Finn of Toonerville, Colorado, whose house gets rather lively whenever he sets out to vacuum the rugs. Jim Aylesworth's witty, homespun rhymes blend perfectly with Richard Hull's quirky, stylized illustrations to introduce this gathering of Americans who, in their own eccentric way, suggest the breadth of the land.

Reviews (5)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 1-3A 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 conceptbut whether they will pedal along to the final destination is in doubt.Carol Ann Wilson, Westfield Memorial Library, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

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 à 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 happilyover and over again. Ages 5-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Horn Book Review

In a series of tall tale verses, a boy describes his rides around America on his sister's bike, visiting thirteen states and meeting people and their eclectic pets. An uninspired, repetitive rhyming verse accompanies dark stylized gouache illustrations. The detailed artwork offers more substance than the text. From HORN BOOK 1996, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Review

Aylesworth (Wake Up, Little Children, p. 856, etc.) has again teamed up with Hull (his collaborator on The Cat and The Fiddle and More, 1992, etc.) for a wild ride through the country: ``I once rode around America/On my sister's rusty bike./I found some crazy places and/Some folks I think you'll like.'' A visit to Massachusetts yields cats with purple fur, West Virginia features pink pet sheep, Indiana has blue-spotted cows, and Oklahoma has a horse who loves TV. Arizona is home to some sweets-loving snakes, while California stars a crow who quotes ``Edgar Poe.'' Each state's attractions are more wacky than the next (and more nonsensical, with more comedic impact than links to specific states or regions), and all are perfectly complemented by Hull's highly detailed gouache paintings of landscapes and faces (not to mention chickens) that show what happens when Grant Wood meets Technicolor. A quirky and wonderful journey. (Picture book. 5-8)

Booklist Review

Ages 5^-8. In this original and offbeat picture book, a boy on a bike tours the back roads of the U.S., visiting such locales as Paradise, West Virginia; Carbon Hill, Alabama; and Toomersville, Colorado. Those are real places on a map, but the citizens introduced aren't ordinary folk. Jojo Jones feeds his pet toads flies ala mode; Benny Finn uses real bears for rugs, which works fine till he whips out the vacuum; Ike O'Day, who lives in California, has a white crow that recites Poe. But it is Edward Lear, not Poe, whose spirit haunts these playful rhymes. The boy's strange encounters with oddballs across the country are well matched by Hull's surreal, somewhat murky illustrations, and effective use of refrains and humorous alliteration gives the verse a singsong quality that makes this a rollicking good trip along America's less-traveled roads. --Shelley Townsend-Hudson

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