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Batwings and Bicycles at Home on the Prairie

Cowpoke Clyde Rides the Range, by Lori Mortensen, illustrated by Michael Allen Austin; Clarion Books, $16.99, 32 pages, ages 3-7.

In this
adventurous

follow-up to Cowpoke Clyde and Dirty Dawg, an advertisement for a shiny Springer bicycle convinces Clyde to trade in his spurs for a ten-speed. The cowboy rides his “steel machine” across the prairie, coming perilously close to smashing
to smithereens

a toad, a porcupine, and a herd of Bighorn sheep. After taking a nasty spill, Clyde is ready to pack it in. Will he remember the wisdom of what to do when you fall off a horse? Veteran storyteller Lori Mortensen’s jumpy, funny rhyming couplets are carefree and good-humored, while Michael Allen Austin’s acrylic and colored pencil illustrations of a cowboy and his faithful hound are bright and full of excitement. Don’t miss this read-aloud roundup!