Fiets!

by Alison Farrell

Kleine Etta Olifant vindt het altijd fijn om bij haar tante op bezoek te gaan. Tante Ellen woont namelijk op een heel speciale plek: in Fietsstad!
Vanavond is het tijd voor de jaarlijkse Sterrenlichtparade, maar de uitnodigingen zijn nog niet verstuurd! Gelukkig is burgemeester Slak ermee bezig. En misschien kan Etta hem wel een handje helpen?

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Transport, Bicycles, Fiction, Cities

40 pages, Hardcover

First published March 20, 2018

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Etta Elephant visits her Aunt Ellen in Cycle City just in time for the big Starlight Parade, in which all the various animal residents promenade in their diverse cycles. As Mayor Snail hunts down the various attendees who have not yet received their invitation, and the Parade Committee realize they haven't named a Grand Marshall, Etta and Aunt Ella spend a happy day getting ready. Eventually, it is Ella herself who is chosen to lead the parade...

An entertaining search-and-find book, as well as an engaging picture-book tribute to cycles of all kinds, Cycle City provides the child reader/listener with the opportunity of poring over its detailed illustrations. The text on each two-page spread invites the reader to search out various animals, in the busy scenes depicted in the watercolor artwork. This is a debut for author/artist Alison Farrell, and it is certainly an auspicious one! I'm not always fond of search-and-find books, mostly because my eyes tend to get tired, but I found this one quite charming. Recommended to young cyclists, and to anyone looking for picture-books featuring search-and-find elements.

[madeline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not to be dramatic but this book made me so happy I got two of the little birds on bikes tattooed on my arms.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This reminds me of Richard Scarry’s Busy Town books, which I enjoyed as a child and which my own children have enjoyed. My youngest likes search-and-find books and this one is fun for that purpose, though perhaps a tad too “busy” for my tastes these days. Parts feel a bit random, but I also appreciated the story is fairly cohesive with the approaching parade/festival and following certain characters as they go about the preparations leading up to it. Bonus points for promoting cycling and don’t miss the end papers which label the various types of bikes.

[Edie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Move over Richard Scarry, here is a new way to engage kids and increase their powers of observation. There's going to be a parade and all kinds of participants are invited, brining all kinds of bicycles. the text directs us to look for certain animals and activities but there's lots of opportunities for other questions and observations. And animals include the predictable bunnies but also an Alpaca and Salamander. And a frog is proud to be amphibious. Lots of fun, lots to learns.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A total charmer! The story of the Starlight Parade in Cycle City, and a seek and find to spot each guest and bicycle pairing on many of the spreads. Mayor Snail might be my favorite. So many joyful details to notice, plus endpapers that are a visual glossary of different kinds of cycles.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was darling! The illustrations are too cute.

[Jennifer J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun, try to find the character in each page. Holds my toddlers attention very well

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminds me of Richard Scarry

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detail packed fun for the where's waldo type reader. With enough tiny figures to be fun but not so many as to make the hunt frustrating.

[Mehsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Welkom bij Fietsstad, een stad met, je kunt het al raden, alleen maar fietsen!

Wauw, wat was dit een heerlijk boek om te lezen, maar het is nog meer dan dat, je bent een hele tijd aan het kijken naar de platen, want dit is ook een zoek/doe boek.

Er zijn ook twee verhaallijnen, als ik het zo zou noemen. Je hebt Etta's bezoek aan haar tante in Fietsstad en hoe zij voorbereiden op de parade van die avond, maar ook de burgemeester die nog snel uitnodigingen moet geven aan de laatste dieren (ja, geen idee waarom die niet eerder zijn gegeven, maar ach, chaos is leuk). Elke plaat is weer een ander stuk van de stad en in elke plaat kun je Etta en Ellen vinden, maar ook de burgemeester die dus uitnodigingen geeft aan allerlei dieren. Uiteindelijk komt alles samen bij de parade.

Maar naast dat kun je ook kijken naar verschillende dieren. Zo vond ik het bijvoorbeeld heerlijk om dat verliefde stelletje te volgen en te zien wat er nu weer zou gebeuren. Maar ook de boekenmobiel volgen was erg leuk (en ik wil ook een boek!). En dan is dat nog maar het topje van de ijsberg. Geloof me, je kunt heel lang staren naar de platen en nog steeds nieuwe details vinden. Nieuwe dieren of maffe fietsen. Leuk!

Ik vond het idee van een stad met alleen maar fietsen ook erg creatief. Ik zou daar best willen wonen en dan een heerlijke maffe fiets hebben. Misschien ook iets met boeken. Of een muziekfiets.

De parade was ook erg mooi om te zien. Iedereen die we hebben gezien in de vorige platen komen bij elkaar en gaan lekker fietsen en feesten (fiesten?).

Aan het einde gaat Etta weer naar huis, ook al denk ik dat deze meid gewoon nog wat langer had willen blijven, hopelijk kan ze snel weer naar haar tante toe en nog meer avonturen beleven in Fietsstad.

Aan het begin/einde van het boek hebben we ook allerlei fietsen. Aan het begin staan er geen namen bij, maar aan het einde zijn alle fietsen met naam benoemd.

De tekeningen waren gewoon té leuk. Alison Farrell heeft een superleuke stijl en ze heeft veel fantasie. Al die dieren, al die soorten fietsen.

Ja, ik zou dit boek alleen maar kunnen aanraden. Het is een grappig en leuk boek en ik weet zeker dat kinderen het helemaal te gek gaan vinden. Lekker zoeken, naar mooie platen kijken en verschillende dieren volgen.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Watercolor and ink illustrations complement a story of how Etta Elephant helps the parade planning committee deliver invitations to the Starlight Parade scheduled to be held in Cycle City. Readers must move through the book's pages, searching for certain objects or individuals. Although books like this give me a headache after I look at them for long because there is so much to see, youngsters will love trying to spot the missing elements mentioned in the text. There are also thought bubbles used in the illustrations so that it is clear what the various animal characters are thinking. It all culminates in lots of food and a parade. Since everyone gets around via cycles of some sort, the end papers feature various versions, including a recumbent bike, a lowrider, and a pedicab, among many others. Youngsters might enjoy returning to the book's pages to find these bikes and identifying who's riding on each one. This sort of thing is interesting to me, but will be more interesting for its intended audience.

[Joseph Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

My children (3 and 5) now regularly exclaim "Is it a sunroof? I call it a funroof!" at random intervals, based on a recurring interaction in the book about a pedicab's roof. Carefully thought out, the book has a main storyline that involves looking for characters, but also each part of the page also has a lot of content that you can look and read if you want (so yes, Richard Scarry style).

That means it lends itself to either "fast" reading -- go through and just follow the snail mayor as he hands out invitations to the cycle parade -- or "slow" reading, where you take more time to look over all of each page's characters.

Although it does have Portland landmarks, it also has a kind of Paris-Copenhagen feel (mail bikes, canals, trains arriving in the center of the city), an imaginary mashup between the West Coast and continental Europe. It's also a fabulous social imaginary of a world that isn't covered in cars.

Also looks like a sequel just came out, March 2021, Bicycle Bash. Ask your library to buy multiple copies today! (I just did).

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alison Farrell channeled her inner Richard Scarry in Cycle City! Fans of Scarry, lovers of Where’s Waldo, and animal and cycling fanatics alike will enjoy helping the mayor of Cycle City deliver invitations to various residents for the Starlight Parade (a bike parade through the city). The pleasant, interesting, but not too busy watercolor illustrations tell multiple stories at once and will keep readers young and old engaged read after read. A resident of Portland and a biking enthusiast, readers familiar with Portland can look closely for some Portland landmarks (see this interview for more information on that: https://bikeportland.org/2018/04/05/s...). The end pages are also worth a close look… I had no idea many of these bikes really existed!

[FM Family · Rating 3 out of 5]

I sometimes really like these kinds of books that are search and find and narrative mixed together. I felt like this one didn't quite nail it, with the search and find component overpowering the narrative so that it was really tough to do as a read aloud. A fun book though, similar to Mamoko by Aleksandra Mizielinska, where you can follow some specific characters through multiple pages, follow the written narrative, or just focus on the overall impression of the pages. Cool also to see the various different bike-powered modes of transporation throughout. Think I might try it out again when my kid is a bit older and can read on her own, because at 4, I felt like we were all sort of at a loss of what exactly to do with it.

[Ashley Adkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

My boys and I really enjoyed looking through this one. The interactive text really made it feel like a Where's Waldo book as we searched the pages for what the text was referring to. Meanwhile the detailed illustrations took us back to our favorite Richard Scarry's books. This turned into a long read for us as we took our time looking at the pictures but I am sure children of all ages would enjoy this.

[Bonnie Grover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to the @kidlitexchange network for the review copy of this book. All opinions are my own. Cycle City takes readers on a fun seek and find journey. Kids will love finding all the hidden characters and answering the questions as the story progresses. Cycle City presents a new story every time it’s shared.

[Hannah Holt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun hunt-and-find story with Cycle City as the backdrop. The Richard Scarry-like drawings are visually pleasing and packed with things to find. Residents of Portland, Oregon will get a special kick out of some of the details in her story, but this story is good fun for anyone--no matter where you live.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is NOT EASY to draw bicycles. It is not any easier to draw animals riding bicycles. It is perhaps the ultimate challenge of an artist's creativity to draw every kind of bicycle you can think of ridden by every kind of animal you can think of. This book is not only a terrifically engaging seek-and-find for young readers, but a joy for bike lovers of any age.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a busy day in Cycle City when everyone is getting ready for the Starlight Parade. I absolutely LOVED poring over every inch of this book! Searching for characters, marvelling at bikes, reading all the sweet little conversations… TOO MUCH CUTE, I can hardly stand it! An absolute favorite!

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I asked my granddaughter how many stars we should give Cycle City -she said A HUNDRED!!!

Its a great book that gives new pleasure and stories each time we read it which is almost every day. My grandchildren are 5 and 3 and they both love it

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this because a librarian at my loca branch had some awesome tattoos. I know it’s not always polite to ask about tattoos but I was so intrigued by the art work. They told me they were from this book, so I checked it out. Truly delightful in every way I can think of.

[Liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful illustrations and the perfect buddy read! Children will love looking for the details in each illustrated page.

[Carolina Edvinsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Läs min recension på bloggen ---> Romeoandjuliet

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

A unique and cute way to write an “I Spy” book!

[Alyson (Kid Lit Frenzy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Scary meets Waldo with a tad of Barbar.

[Adriana · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautiful illustrations, wonderful seek and find

[Cindy Bellomy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So fun!

[June · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where's Waldo for bicycle lovers.

Enjoyed the end papers with all the different cycles.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

charming book that's like a modern where's waldo set in a city where all the animal citizens travel by various kinds of cargo bikes. each page is a chance to search among them for different animals.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute. Maybe when kiddo is more into biking?