The Bike That Wanted to Fly🚲

The bike in the garage has an offer: learn to ride, and I’ll teach you to fly. Each lesson becomes a little adventure. The bike grumbles when it falls over, reminds the child to look ahead rather than down at the front wheel, and giggles when the bell is rung a little too often.

There’s a first ride in the garden, a hill that looks like a mountain and a long trip around the lake. The child falls and gets back up, and each time the bike reminds them of its promise. Whether they ever fly, or whether flying turns out to be something quite different from what they imagined, is revealed at the end.

This idea is just right for the weeks when a child is learning to ride, after a few days of practice when patience is beginning to wear thin. It can also be read by a child who has already learned and wants to remember what it was like, or given when a new bike is waiting in the hallway.

A three-year-old with a balance bike will enjoy the talking bike and its cheeky ways. An eight-year-old tackling a bigger bike will recognise the frustration, laugh at the bike’s grumbling and see that it’s possible to be brave and try again.

Describe the colour of the bike, the helmet and where you practise: a quiet street, a park path or a gravel track. A sibling could ride ahead to show the way, while a parent runs behind with a hand on the back of the bike. If your child has recently taken off their stabilisers, that could become a scene of its own.

After reading, you could imagine what your own bike would say if it could talk. Give it a name and place a stick to mark how far your child rode on their own, moving it after each attempt. Find more ideas at Learning to ride a bike.