A Bike Like Sergio's

This tale of temptation, ethics, guilt, and family love is firmly grounded in the economic realities of today, as was the earlier collaboration between Boelts and Jones, Those Shoes (rev. 11/07). Narrator Ruben's friend Sergio "forgets that there's a difference between his birthday and mine" when he encourages Ruben to ask his parents for a new bike for his birthday. Ruben, whose family struggles to pay the bills, knows that "wishes won't make money appear." But when a woman in the grocery store drops what Ruben thinks is "just a dollar" and he picks it up and later finds that it's a hundred-dollar bill, he starts to believe his wish for a bike might come true. Jones's watercolor, pencil, and ink illustrations depict Ruben's family life as no-frills but happy: there are dishes in the sink of the apartment and toddlers banging on pots and pans. Boelts does an equally fine job of conveying the lure of owning what other kids own, alongside the inevitable guilt that Ruben feels when he thinks he has lost the money and goes looking for it ("Leaves and money look the same. Rain and tears feel the same") and when he bumps into the rightful owner. The resolution is realistic for a kid with a loving, supportive family, and it leaves plenty of room for talking about what is most important in life from an authentically childlike perspective. susan dove lempke

When a woman in the grocery store drops a hundred-dollar bill, Ruben (whose family struggles to pay the bills) starts to believe his wish for a bike might come true. Jones's watercolor, pencil, and ink illustrations depict Ruben's family life as no-frills but happy. Boelts conveys the lure of owning what other kids own, alongside the inevitable guilt that Ruben feels before the realistic resolution.