#347 of 1001 · July 13, 2021

There’s a truly heartwarming relationship anchoring @authorstrator’s wordless companion to The Boy and the Airplane, The Girl and the Bicycle. While out on a walk with her little brother, a girl sees a bicycle in a store window. When she cannot scrounge up enough money around the house for the purchase, she decides to work for it. A kindly neighbor employs her over a period of months for a variety of tasks: raking leaves, cleaning the house, shoveling snow, planting the garden, trimming the hedge. She finally saves enough money, but when she returns to the store she finds that the bicycle is gone. In that moment, she makes a decision with her hard-earned cash—one that shows true selflessness. Pett’s pencil-and-watercolor artwork beautifully portrays the growing connection between the girl and her neighbor, which provides the story with a quietly lovely denouement. A subtle and delightful Easter egg: while the girl and her neighbor are cleaning out the garage, the neighbor gazes at a photograph of the protagonist of Pett’s earlier The Boy and the Airplane (suggesting that she may be his wife, or his sister, or even his daughter) just as the girl stands a few feet away from the eponymous toy plane itself. #girl #bicycle #bike #store #brother #neighbor #work #gratitude #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks