Wild Blue: Taming A Big-kid Bike. A Review

The word “taming” in the title Wild Blue: Taming A Big-kid Bike, written by Dashka Slater, is a clue to the metaphor that energizes this heartfelt story. When Kayla outgrows her pink “pony” with its training wheels, Dad suggests she “wrangle a new one from the herd,” so they go to the bike store.

Graduating from a pink tricycle or training wheels to a big-kid bike is an enormous leap, but Kayla chooses a new mount and names the bicycle Wild Blue. Gamely she takes her steed for a ride but gets bucked off. Again and again, her two-wheeled wild horse throws her.

The extended metaphor of horseback riding works well in both story and art. In Laura Hughes’ vibrant illustrations, shadows that should be from Kayla’s blue bike are those of a horse, Kayla is shown wearing wild west accouterments, and other kids imaginatively appear to be riding horses. However, they race by on their wheels. Hughes’ loosely painted acrylic ink artwork in bright colors reinforces the energy involved in Kayla’s empowering journey.

After bruises and disappointments, Kayla checks to be sure that no one is watching, then with determination and a bit of encouragement from her dad, decides it’s time to show Wild Blue who is the boss. Her wobbles build suspense until, at last, Kayla rides free. Dad thinks Kayla has tamed her bike, but no, she says her rearing stallion is still wild, and so is she.

One considers why the author chose a blue horse for the central allegory. The cliché for young children is pink for girls and blue for boys, but in this picture book, the color reference is to emotional maturity. In art history, there are precedents for the symbolism of this color horse in  The Tower of Blue Horses painting by Franz Marc, others by Wassily Kandinsky and Mark Chagall, and even the significant group of artists Franz Marc led called Der Blaue Reiter, The Blue Rider. For these artists, as for the Fauves, colors had symbolic, emotional, or psychological meanings, and for Franz Marc, animals were purer, more honest beings than humans.

In Wild Blue: Taming A Big-kid Bike, the blue horse signifies Kayla’s growing empowerment, which she had to earn. For young readers, the blue horse metaphor will be charming and fun. And the book’s final image is a rousing coda.

This review is based on a copy of the book sent by Candlewick

Photographs by Egils Zarins