The wobbly bike by Darren McCallum and Craig Smith (illus.)

Pop's old bike is wobbly, it wobbles side to side.
It wobbles every single time I take it for a ride...

Learning to ride a bike, to perfect your balance, to master the two-wheeled monster is a rite of passage for so many Australian kids because suddenly they have the ability and the independence to venture further than the front gate to join their friends and have all sorts of new-found fun and adventures. But what if the bike you are trying to control isn't some shiny, new, fancy-dancy expensive models that probably uses AI or some other technical wizardry to keep you upright? What if it's your pop's own creaky, rusty model that is decades old, covered in cobwebs, and hasn't been ridden since he was a lad? Can you still learn to ride it? Can you master its wibbles and wobbles and other issues so you, too, can be a rider? And does its age and looks matter to your mates as you wobble out the gate to join them? Or are you just another kid to know the joy of the freedom of wheels?

This is a humorous story-in-rhyme set against the backdrop of Darwin suburbia that celebrates the fun and falls that we all remember as we learned to ride; the pride we felt when we finally managed those first few shaky metres when the trainer wheels came off and the adult let go; the freedom we had as we ventured beyond the front gate and the joy we felt with all our friends as we did the dopey things that kids do because we knew no fear and no boundaries. And no matter whether we were in the suburbs of Darwin, the green space in a city, or a dusty dirt road in a tiny country town, had a snazzy new bike or the hand-me-down from Pop, we all learned the same thing - you have to practise, practise, practise, accept the skinned knees, pick yourself up, dust yourself down and try again.

This is such a joyous book with its humour, rhyme and illustrations making something very special from something very ordinary, evoking memories, connecting kids and generations, and reminding us that things that are worthwhile are worth striving for. After all, even Mulga Bill got there in the end!!!

Themes: Bicycles.

Barbara Braxton