Tag archives for Bikes
Posted by Phenomenal Friday Fact
Another phenomenal Friday fact!
By ditching the car and cycling to your friend’s house or
soccer practice instead, you’ll keep pollutants from being emitted into the
atmosphere – 3.6 pounds for every mile you ride.
Read more on how you can conserve resources and save power.
Read Ten Fun Facts About Bikes.
Photograph by Guy Needham, My Shot
Posted by BOOK NAME: Wheels of Change
AUTHOR: Sue Macy
As I read Wheels of Change, the newest book from National Geographic, it really started moving the wheels in my mind. This book takes you through how the bicycle began a chain of events in which women and the general public came to realize that women’s rights, freedoms and expectations were in need of change.
The book starts with a basic history of the bicycle itself with many intriguing facts, images, and short biographies of ladies who led the way. A woman riding a bike back in the late 1800s wasn’t that big of a deal, but when they wanted to become competitive, they realized that the long skirts had to go. Many felt that if women got to wear pants or divided skirts, the whole social system would collapse. Maybe women would even compete with men! In fact, in a race in which a woman challenged a man-she won! This behavior was considered scandalous at that time.
The bicycle aroused wide-spread thinking about women’s rights and their place in society. It opened the way for actions toward equality and women eventually gaining the right to vote. The new freedom that the bicycle gave them opened up the way for different kinds of thinking, a sort of symbol of independence.
I would recommend this book to older readers due to the vocabulary and the topic itself. This book lends itself to have you think about women as activists and their place in society. A pretty heavy topic, but told in an attractive, easy to follow format.
And yes, a big change started with something as simple as a bicycle!
(AD) Check out Wheels of Change in the National Geographic Store!
Posted by BOOK NAME: Lawn Boy Returns
AUTHOR: Gary Paulsen
This is the sequel to Lawn Boy, which was about a 12-year-old boy who just wanted to buy an inner tube for his bike so he used his grandpa’s mower to mow people’s lawns and ended up starting his own mowing company that makes a lot of money.
This book is about what happens next: tax difficulties, employee problems, fake relatives who want his money, and lots more.
The biggest problem is that Joey Pow, the boxer who Lawn Boy sponsors, beats a boxer by the name of Bruiser Bulk. Upset with how the match ended, some angry fans and Bruiser then start threatening to hassle Lawn Boy’s Grandma and Joey Pow. So Lawn Boy and his company come up with a plan to make enough trouble to get Bruiser and his fans to leave them alone. What happens next is very fun to read.
I really liked this book. It was easy to read and I was laughing my head off at certain parts. My favorite part was when Lawn Boy’s Grandma punched someone in the kidney, because that’s not something you see every day, at least not from my own Grandmas.
