A bike ride leads not only to fresh perspectives on life but to entirely fresh horizons in The New Bicycle, a visually fantastical but temperamentally down-to-earth picture book from illustrator Darcy Day Zoells, here embarking on her maiden voyage as an author/illustrator.
On its own, Zoells's text couldn't be more reasonable: it describes the experience of young Mari, who has just received a new bike that's "bigger, bolder, and brimming with possibilities." Mari is probably not the first kid to observe that "when she pedaled fast, her new bicycle nearly flew," but unlike Mari, most young readers don't have a house in their neighborhood that's supported by what look like the feet of a giant bird. And while Mari is probably not the only kid with a bicycle bell that "seemed to sing 'hello!,' " readers are unlikely to find themselves biking, as Mari does, past a stack of three houses, the middle one upside down. These are just two of the surreal sights that greet Mari as she powers ahead on her new bike, chasing experiences.
Mari's journey is recorded in clean black lines and a matter-of-fact color scheme that reserves its boldest accents for small but key details: red balloons at what looks like an open-door zoo, the green boat onto which Mari takes her bike so she can tow an elephant standing in a seaworthy yard, and so on. It's all in a day's ride, The New Bicycle hints, for those whose world is only as limited as their imaginations. --Nell Beram, freelance writer and YA author