The perfect book for every first-time bike rider I want a bike! I want a bike! This is all Bonnie says for one full week, until her parents surprise her with . . . a bike! Then: Oh boy! Oh boy! Before she knows it, Bonnie is off on a wobbly course around the backyard that becomes an adventure of epic proportions. She bikes over mountains, under giraffes, up the Statue of Liberty, through the Grand Canyon, and past the Giant Cheese. There's only one thing Bonnie can't do on her bike . . . STOP!!! But after a tumble and an important lesson from Mom and Dad, Bonnie is back in the saddle. This celebration of a timeless rite of passage will have kids clamoring to read it, read it again, and then strike out on their own bike-riding adventures.

Written for the cyclists of all stripes, Best Bikes Rides Near Chicago marks the debut of a new series that offers a diverse array of scenic tours in some of America’s largest urban destinations—from easy excursions for the Sunday cyclist to challenging treks for the veteran. Here, veteran author and cyclist Ted Villaire presents 35 diverse rides in and around the Windy City. As amply demonstrated by this guide, Chicago’s heritage as a transportation hub has reaped huge rewards for local cyclists. Twenty miles of lakeshore parkland and an elaborate system of leafy boulevards connect a series of mega-parks throughout the city. Coupled with this is an ever-expanding cycling infrastructure featuring more than 100 miles of bikes lanes. The Illinois Prairie Path, which runs between the Des Plaines River and Wheaton, was one of the first linear trails in the nation converted from a railroad line—and today it is part of the most extensive collection of rail trails in the Midwest, perhaps the nation.

A beautiful guide to fifty of the world’s best places to ride a bicycle, as chosen by expert cyclists who have been there. Fifty Places to Bike Before You Die is the ninth addition to the bestselling Fifty Places series by Chris Santella. Biking has grown increasingly popular in recent years, as both a leisure and an extreme exercise activity, and Santella covers trips for cyclists of every level. Fifty Places to Bike covers environments as varied as the Dalmatian Coast in Croatia, the Indochina Trail in Vietnam, and the urban jungle of New York City. With a healthy mix of international and national locations, the 50 chapters capture the breathtaking vistas cyclists will enjoy around the world. As always, the places are brought to life with more than 40 stunning color photographs. Praise for Fifty Places to Bike Before You Die “OMG views, killer hills and open road—the routes in Fifty Places to Bike Before You Die (in bookstores this month) have everything a pedal pusher could ask for.” —Fitness magazine “If you know someone who can’t view a landscape without visualizing themselves traversing it on two wheels, Fifty Places to Bike Before You Die is a sound gift choice.” —The San Francisco Chronicle “Fifty Places to Bike Before You Die gets adventurous cyclists going in the right direction.” —The Boston Globe “50 chapters capture breathtaking cycling trails around the world.” —Metrosource magazine

Hidden in and around the Detroit and Ann Arbor area are some great roads, trails, and bike paths that are fun to explore. Best Bike Rides Detroit and Ann Arbor describes 40 great recreational rides in the metro areas. With most rides between 5 and 35 miles—including road rides, rail trails, bike paths, and mountain bike rides—it’s easy to find a ride that suits your tastes. Each route includes complete directions, a map, a text description of the area you’ll be riding, the GPS coordinates of the start/finish point, and color photos of one the ride’s features. Also included is information on local restaurants, lodging, maps, bicycle shops, other facilities for cyclists, and community resources. Look inside to find: • Detailed maps and directions • Rides that explore the urban areas as well as the surrounding country • A variety of rides, most between 5 and 35 miles in length • In-depth information about each ride, including length, terrain, traffic conditions, and road hazards • Interesting facts about each area • Options to create longer or shorter rides

“[Raschka's] marvelous sequences, fluid style, and emotional intelligence capture all of the momentum and exhilaration of this glorious accomplishment,” raves School Library Journal in a starred review. Learning to ride a bike is one of the most important milestones of childhood, and no one captures the emotional ups and downs of the experience better than Chris Raschka, who won the 2012 Caldecott Medal for A Ball for Daisy. In this simple yet emotionally rich "guide," a father takes his daughter through all the steps in the process—from choosing the perfect bicycle to that triumphant first successful ride. Using very few words and lots of expressive pictures, here is a picture book that not only shows kids how to learn to ride, but captures what it feels like to fall . . . get up . . . fall again . . . and finally "by luck, grace, and determination" ride a bicycle!

The classic bicycle road racing book first published in 1978 chronicles a 150-kilometer European road race and its competitors in vivid, realistic detail. Reprint.

This classic, once hard-to-find travelogue recalls one of the very first around-the-world bicycle treks. Filled with rarely matched feats of endurance and determination, Around the World on a Bicycle tells of a young cyclist’s ever-changing and maturing worldview as he ventures through forty countries on the eve of World War II. It is an exuberant, youthful account, harking back to a time when the exploits of Richard Byrd, Amelia Earhart, and other adventurers stirred the popular imagination. In 1935 Fred A. Birchmore left the small American town of Athens, Georgia, to continue his college studies in Europe. In his spare time, Birchmore toured the continent on a one-speed bike he called Bucephalus (after the name of Alexander the Great’s horse). A born wanderer, Birchmore broadened his travels to include the British Isles and even the Mediterranean. After a lengthy, unplanned detour in Egypt, Birchmore put his studies on hold, pointed Bucephalus eastward, and just kept going. From desert valleys to frozen peaks, from palace promenades to muddy jungle trails, Birchmore saw it all on his eighteen-month, twenty-five-thousand-mile odyssey. Some of the people he encountered had never seen a bike—or, for that matter, an Anglo-European. As a good travel experience should, Birchmore’s trip changed his outlook on strangers. Always daring, outgoing, and energetic, he now saw an innate goodness in people. In between bone-breaking spills, wild animal attacks, and privation of all kinds, Birchmore learned that he had little to fear from human encounters. That he traveled through a world on the brink of global war makes this lesson even more remarkable—and timeless.