FLYER MCTIRE

A former racecar tire takes to the air in retirement.

“Flyer McTire was speedy and round. / He raced for his fans as he sped cross the ground.” To his dismay, after giving it his all for so long, he’s suddenly sidelined. As the pit crew explains, there’s a limit on laps, and Flyer McTire has reached his. He ends up on a dark, shadowy mountain of used tires: “Rolled away, sold, he was tossed in a pile. / He couldn’t believe he’d raced his last mile.” There he sits through rain and snow, dejected, until a boy and his father (both brown-skinned) come to select a tire for their own use. His new job? Tire swing! Myers captures the boy’s exhilaration as he flies through the air. And Flyer McTire? “He felt the sweet speed. / He felt the old spark.” The bucolic setting and sunny skies of his new home seem just right. Ferry’s simple, rhymed text cruises along in this ode to going fast and to second chances. Myers’ lively, vivid, full-bleed cartoon illustrations offer an immersive sense of the track; readers will be thrilled to see racecars in neon colors with elaborate spoilers as they zoom by. Myers also invests McTire with plenty of personality. His face—eyebrows, eyes, and a mouth against his gray tread—comically conveys determination, bewilderment, sadness, and delight. Racecar enthusiasts will relish the unusual protagonist and cheerful, off-road ending.

A surefire candidate for repeat readings.