Giddy-Up! Let's Ride!

by Mcdonnell Flora

Flora McDonnell’s joyful new rendition of an old rhyming game will inspire many a rousing ride on a bouncing knee.

Trrrit-trrrot! Rumpetta-trump! Bang! Bang! Boom! Boom! Flora McDonnell takes the traditional "This Is the Way the Ladies Ride" and puts an exhilarating new spring in its step and an exotic new cast of riders at the reins. From the clown who bump-bumps to the knight who clank-clanks, the richly colored images in this beautiful book will spark many young imaginations. Giddy-up!

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Horses, Storytime, Childrens, Transport

Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[June · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saw this recommended as a lap time (bounce book). Interesting in the different sounds it has for the different people riding and the fact that an elephant and a camel are included. 3/1/17

Used in Baby Lap Times with varying success.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

picture book (baby/toddler)
this is a nice one for lapsit storytimes (pair with "This is the way the baby rides"). The page-size is huge and the colorful pictures and short, rhythmic text would be great for sharing with large crowds of baby/toddlers.
I would like to see a new version with pictures that are a bit more diverse/inclusive--the princess and the fairy characters are both fair, blond girls; the lone black child is labeled a "nomad," the other darker-skinned child is a "rajah."

See also: Clip Clop for a similarly-themed book with a longer text and farm animals.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've never heard of the game "this is the way the ladies ride" so I suppose I lost something here.

This is a goofy look at kids at a day care or nursery or something imagining riding on a variety of horses and other animals like a camel, unicorn and elephant. Or perhaps this is what adults imagine little kids imagining.

I'm not fond of the artwork. It has a strange amount of detail and yet a rather nauseating approach to drawing horses legs and chests. Yes, nauseating, since the art is a bit disorienting. It's bright enough to need shades.

Why bother to do detailed work on swans and the upper half of horses, when the kids look like Cabbage Patch dolls and the bottom halves of the horses look like she stopped giving a fuck?

[Casuarina Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant paraphrase of the classic knee-bounce nursery rhyme. Fantastic for babies through to pre-schoolers and could be used as a launch pad for cross-curricular lessons.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

bouncing, lap sit book.

[Michelle Halber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did not go well for baby storytime.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A play off the classic song This is the Way the Lady Rides, this has a lot of different verses that young children will enjoy. It's a huge book so the format is nice to read aloud to a group.

[jacky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun expansion of the rhyme "This is the way the ladies ride..." We came in late to it at story time, but what we saw I thought was fun. It has all sorts of riders with different types of animals and different sounds. Favorites of mine would be the fairy on the unicorn as well as the elephant and camel. The illustrations seemed good from where we sat.

[jenna Hudrlik · Rating 4 out of 5]

more for a younger child - nice pictures and very few words

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the pictures, but the story was kind of repetitive.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

has been a family favorite. lots of fun sounds to enact.

[Thia]

motions, participation

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take off of "This is the way the ladies ride" - super cute!

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I shortened it by a couple pages for lapsit. It was fun to act out, but some pages were hard to come up with an interactive way to enact the sounds.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too bad our district's only copy is trashed.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the live words they used throughout the book, these words could definitely be used as vocab. So full of character!!!!

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously, you do knee-bounces while reading this during storytime! Very fun.

[Casandria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great rhythms as the author-illustrator shows how different people ride (a jockey, a nomad, etc).