The Girl and the Bicycle

Illustrator Mark Pett creates another beautiful wordless book in The Girl and the Bicycle.

A young girl and her brother are walking down the street, when she spots a beautiful green bicycle in the store window.  She works and works and works to earn enough money to buy it, only to discover it’s gone when she goes to buy it.

She’s very sad, but decides to spend her money on a tricycle for her brother instead.  Her hard work and kind heart are rewarded at the end of the book.

Even without words, this is a moving story.  I particularly like the taupe and white colored illustrations – only the bicycle is green.  (And in homage to it’s companion book The Boy and the Airplane, there’s a red airplane on another page.)  Pett also makes it clear that the girl perseveres through several discouraging encounters before she finds a neighbor who will employ her.

Readers see the relationship between these two grow, as the girl works hard for almost a year for the woman before she has enough to buy the bicycle.

Highly recommended for ages 2 – 8.