When the RoundTable last checked in with Lucy Knisley at her southeast Evanston home, she was checking out the watercolor artwork she had created for her next book, which was set to roll out the next year. Well, next year became this year, and the artwork became this book, which rolled out in February right on schedule.
Ride Beside Me is an illustrated, large-format “picture story” for kids 3 to 6. It follows a mom and her son “hitting the streets” on a bicycling “adventure!” Mom supplies the pedal power and son supplies a running – oh, heck, let’s just say it, “rolling” – commentary.
The boy is missing at least one front tooth and is probably closer to 6 than 3. He tells the entire story all by himself in bursts of short words and sentences that tend to rhyme. Sometimes, and without warning, they exclaim! (The world is that wondrous, remember?)
A comic artist and graphic novelist, Knisley (pronounced nigh-slee) has written, illustrated and published more than a dozen books. She was nominated for the Oscar of the graphic-novelist world, the Eisner Prize, and was an invited speaker at San Diego’s Comic-Con. The north star of her creativity is “community,” which Ride Beside Me embodies and, she says, Evanston inspires.
“I want to use my skills to better my community,” she told the RoundTable’s Kathy Routliffe last summer. “I’m more about making art locally rather than globally. I think that’s because of Evanston. I know how inspiring Evanston has been for me.”
We know that’s not just PR speak because she, her husband, and her son, now 7, have lived here for three years. On weekends, she and her son ride their bikes to the library and on weekdays to school. Knisley doesn’t consider herself a “serious” cyclist but loves riding around town on errands and outings.
Front-porch creativity, kid critiques
In a no-doubt-messier-than-expected, community-building move, Knisley wrote the words and painted the illustrations for Ride Beside Me on her front porch. It took a summer, during which she graciously welcomed opinions and insights from age-appropriate, self-forming focus groups – kids from the neighborhood.
How many kids, we wondered? Knisley paused.
“Hmm. Three … seven,” she said. “No, wait, maybe 15 that live within a block.”
She explained. The “swarms” (her word, after some encouragement) would come and go, “depending on the time and the weather.” Her art supplies, if not her art, were at some risk: “I had to divide [the porch] with a line between my supplies and others available,” which were for the kids.
What did the swarmers have to say?
“They mostly had questions,” she said. “They wondered why there weren’t more animals.”
The story in Ride Beside Me moves right along, as you might expect, and the messages are thoughtful, gentle and clear: “No cars to be seen … The air smells so clean!” There are small bikes and tall bikes, a rainbow of colored helmets, clothes, two-seaters and a kid-friendly cargo bike. (Knisley has one and uses it.)
There is sharing when “Petunia lends Tyler her cycling hat.” There is caring when “Alex helps Petey to fix up a flat.” There is community when the cyclists are joined by old friends and new until they come together in a “river of riders.” And there are, in fact, animals: pigeons, especially two grey ones, often airborne. They flash splashes of red and yellow as the day’s ride winds down into a night’s sleep.
“Why pigeons?” a child blurted out as Knisley read the book aloud at the Wheel & Sprocket bike shop, 1027 Davis St., late last month. She was also showcasing the book’s large gouache paintings one by one, using Japanese “paper theater,” or kamishibai.
“Because they’re everywhere!” she blurted right back. “And they’re part of our environment.” The reading was co-sponsored by Booked, 506 Main St.
Adults not required
The illustrations send their own memorable messages in a Where’s Waldo? sort of way. More than 100 miniatures fill the inside front and back covers. They’re not all unique, though they might as well be. Looking for differences, picking favorites, imagining where everybody’s going is a repeatable adventure in itself. Adults welcomed but not required.
On the other hand, every one of the too-many-to-count images on the inside and the dust jacket is different. (We asked.) All are hand-painted except the miniatures, which were done digitally, but they’re different in their own way: Knisley asked her online followers to send in photos of their bikes and bike-riding crews. She modeled the miniatures after them.
And, separately, there’s a free map. It’s designed for family bike rides covering routes from Booked on the south to the Baha’i temple on the north to Sculpture Park on the west.
“Yes,” Knisley concedes, that’s a lot of riding, but, then again, “a lot of stops involve cookies.” Maps might still be available at Wheel & Sprocket and Booked. We can hope they might someday be downloadable at lucyknisley.com.
Planning to read this book out loud? A silly question but also a warning. Serious silliness might ensue if you hope to use Ride Beside Me to move bedtime along too fast. Your 3- to 6-year-old – or even that precocious 2-year-old – will probably blurt out that breaking away from such a colorful bicycling “adventure!” is just “silly.” And we’re not talking only about the first read-through, either.
Ride Beside Me, Lucy Knisley, Alfred A. Knopf, Copyright 2024, $18.99