READY TO RIDE

The losing-the–training-wheels rite of passage is helped along by a mysterious white blob in this adaptation of a French picture book.

When an unnamed boy goes outside, he sees a “ball of fur wearing a pink hat [go] past on a tiny bike. He looks at me. I hop on my bike and follow him….” Before long, the creature, who looks like a yeti with two dot eyes, is eating the boy’s training wheels, causing him to learn to ride on his new “big boy’s bike.” The learning goes through the familiar stages: fear, injury, recovery, and, finally, comfort, fun, and speed. The creature is equal parts helpful and goading until he is suddenly gone, leaving the boy to go home with his new confidence in riding. The friendly white creature has no dialogue, and Pelon’s illustrations don’t make much of a character out of him. His defining trait is that hat, and though it and the other accent colors throughout the book are gorgeous, the friendship developed doesn’t feel entirely convincing. As a book to celebrate a kid’s graduation from training wheels, it feels worthy: The inside back cover includes a “Certificate for a Super Cyclist” with a blank date. The narrator is paper-white.

It’s a bit of a clunky story, but those colors pop, and the tone is just inspiring enough to give to a training-wheel rider nearing the end of that run