'Ready to Ride' by Sebastien Pelon is a picture book about a young boy learning to ride his bike better with the help of a large friend.

A young boy is bored of being in the house and his mum tells him to go play outside. He decides to ride his bike and he notices a ball of fur wearing a pink hat on a bike. He decides to follow it. He has adventures and finds new freedom in learning to ride without training wheels, and riding down hills. The furry thing with the pink hat doesn't say anything to him, but the boy converses with it anyway until it is time to go inside. Maybe the furry friend was never there in the first place?

It's a story about being independent and riding a bike. About falling on your own and getting back up again. The illustrations are kind of stark with lots of shadows and I found them quite beautiful.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Quarto Publishing Group - words & pictures, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

Ready to Ride is a children's picture book that takes an imaginative turn. We meet a bored little boy who is encouraged by his mother to go outside (one gets the sense she is over his attitude and figures fresh air will do him good).

Then "a ball of fur wearing a pink hat" bikes past. The boy is intrigued and hops on his bike to follow. Much of the book follows him getting frustrated with his training wheels as he feels they're holding him back, then we witness the expected trial and error until he figures out how to ride a bike on his own. All alongside him is this large creature, encouraging and supporting him.

The colorful illustrations add to the story, and children will enjoy the pages where they follow the path of the boy and his over-sized friend.

Cute story with great illustrations. I think we would recommend it for paperback though as we would have liked it better instead of on the Kindle. We would have been able to see the wonderful illustrations better. That's our recommendation -- great book!

Cute little book about a boy learning to ride a bike with the help of an imaginary friend. Please see the full review on reading Rumpus: https://www.readingrumpus.com/2018/06/ready-to-ride-by-sebastien-pelon-very.html (also promoted on LibraryThing, goodreads, and Twitter)

Ready to Ride is an odd little book. I adored the the art but the story was just ok for me, and I suspect some parents might feel a bit apprehensive about possible inadvertent messaging in this one.

After he is sent outside to play on a grey and gloomy day, our little hero decides to hop on his bike to follow an imaginary creature out into the countryside. It doesn't take long for the little guy to have a bit of a fit when he can't keep up with the furry creature due to his training wheels. A few nibbles later, the training wheels are off, and it's time to learn how to ride for real.

It takes a few false starts, but with a furry friend who is patient and kind, it doesn't take long before the child is riding his bike like a big kid. At the end of the day, he realizes he's capable on his own and doesn't need the furry friend to be able to do things on his own.

The main problem that niggled at me throughout this entire story was that this kid either wandered off alone from the city into the countryside or else he thought it was perfectly ok to traipse off after some stranger on a bike. The end of the story left things up in the air a bit about what was real and what was imaginary. The kid left the house with no bandage on his knee nor helmet on his head, but when he returned, he was wearing both; items which had been given to him by the "furry friend".

I suppose this might be a good book to read together with a discussion about boundaries. Overall I did enjoy this book, and was thoroughly charmed with the illustrations, so it gets 4 solid stars from me.

This is a good subject area for a children's book. Learning to ride a bike is an experience most children will be familiar with. However, this is tackled here in a really odd way. The imaginary friend isn't a great character and is not described or drawn in a way that would make children like the character. The child seems to be travelling a city alone. And really, no lesson is learnt here while the story doesn't do enough to compensate for the lack of a moral to end.

This is quite disappointing as this had opportunities to be improved. The whole story lends itself to being an ode to older siblings/adults other than parents as having the potential to be a guiding force looking out for the young child here but that possibility is ended by the weird imaginary friend adding nothing instead.

Strange.

A child goes through riding a bike experience and through it grows up. Super cute and easy to follow for the younger kids through the imagery. Would be a good conversation book/ read out loud with parents or caretakers. Dives into growing up and not needing the same things as you once did,etc.

Downloaded from Netgalley thanks to the publishers for an honest review



Definitely would recommend.

I really liked this book. A boy, who had done his chores and played at home for too long, rides on his bike. Although he is afraid, he is REALLY wanting to take off the training wheels. He goes on a rural adventure where he can ride with few problems. He has his "furry friend" with him all of the way who reminds him (sometimes after the fact) of safety. Issues such as wearing a helmet and appropriate speed for conditions can be overlooked - but he really knows about that.
This is a sweet, fun, imaginative read. Explore and teach!

Many thanks to Quarto Publishing and NetGalley for this fun read!

Ready to Ride is a picture story of a young boy who learns to ride his bike, without training wheels. We all remember how precarious we felt, and this book illustrates how he feels. He has an imaginary friend who “helps” him along his way. There were several pages that had numerous illustrations that were simply too stimulating for me, but I suppose some children might find this exciting.
I didn’t find this book to be exceptional, nor language rich. It would be a book I’d likely ignore, as the colors aren’t vibrant. I like to use books that will build vocabulary of young children as a speech language pathologist, and this really doesn’t seem to do it for me. It doesn’t have a moral or moral compass, yet it would be encouraging for a child who might be having difficulty learning to ride a bike.

#ReadyToRide #NetGalley

Thank you to the publisher and #NetGalley for a pre-publication ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This appears to be a story of how a young child learns to ride on his own, without training wheels. Although, he does have the help of a large white creature with a funny red hat, his imaginary friend, which he appeared to have just met.

<img src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Screen-Shot-2018-06-17-at-11.28.29-PM.png" alt="Ready to ride" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-632" />

It is an odd place, this world of the little boy, with no traffic, and so young, yet able to ride way out int he country by himself. I guess, as a parent, I have trouble suspending my disbelief, but kids probably look at this story and think it is neat that the creature helps teach him how to ride.

#ReadyToRide #NetGalley

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

A delightful little read with beautiful illustrations. It’s a perfect bedtime family read. It can come across as style over substance at times, as the narrative is sacrificed for the visuals.

An enjoyable book for the younger ones, where a child finds a most unlikely friend to advise him in cycling, and to take his training wheels off. I loved the palette used for the big splash illustrations, but I found the more conversational, comic-book styled scenes a little less enjoyable. Still, for that specific time in your young life when you're learning to run and ride free, this is fine.

A gentle story of a child learning how to ride a bike without training wheels. The vocabulary shows that this is a book from England, rather than the US, but the differences are not overwhelming. The artwork carries most of the story -- this is, in effect, a graphic novel for very young readers, rather than a picture book.

This is the story of a little child learning to ride the bike through an imaginary friend. I loved the style of illustration and pastel colours, but not sure about the story. My son is trying to learn bicycle riding at the moment and I know it can be hard! So I think it's a nice subject to pick for a children's book however, I think I didn't like the fact that a small child was wandering around alone in what seems to be like a city. Mummy and daddy doesn't seem to care? How weird!