Born to Ride
A Story About Bicycle Face
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Set against the backdrop of the women’s suffrage movement, author Larissa Theule and illustrator Kelsey Garrity-Riley’s picture book Born to Ride is the story of one girl’s courageous quest to prove that she can do everything the boys can do, while capturing the universal freedom and accomplishment children experience when riding a bike.
Louise Belinda Bellflower lives in Rochester, New York, in 1896. She spends her days playing with her brother, Joe. But Joe gets to ride a bicycle, and Louise Belinda doesn’t. In fact, Joe issues a solemn warning: If girls ride bikes, their faces will get so scrunched up, eyes bulging from the effort of balancing, that they’ll get stuck that way FOREVER!
Appalled by this nonsense, Louise Belinda strikes out to discover the truth about this so-called “bicycle face.”
“An important part of history engagingly told.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Garrity-Riley’s sunny art features round-faced, pink-cheeked characters; a palette of blues and browns, highlighted with splashes of red and yellow; and many period details.” —Booklist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Louisa Belinda Bellflower wants to ride a bike, but in 1896, it's just not something the girls and women of Rochester, N.Y., do. Undaunted, the intrepid girl makes her brother show her how to ride, though they are both afraid she might get "bicycle face" a terrifying condition that purportedly strikes girls and women "Your eyes will bulge, and your jaw will close up from the strain of trying" (an author's note reveals that so-called experts did try to scare women riders with this claim). Louisa persists, and her true bicycle face appears "a gigantic, joyous smile." Her discovery inspires her mother and other women in the community to become cyclists, too. Simple but thoughtfully detailed, Garrity-Riley's illustrations incorporate multiple references to women's suffrage campaigns. An informative afterword explains the connection between the rise of cycling and women's rights. Ages 4 8.
