Ben Rides On

Editorial cartoonist Davies puts his wild cartooning imagination to good use in this book about a boy, his bicycle, and a bully. Ben, all scrawny limbs and giant head, rides his bike to school (he's helmetless, but there's a disclaimer note on the copyright page). When he takes the "very, very long way," he travels over bridges, moves past shark-infested waters, and leaps over school buses. When he gets to school, he faces a really big problem -- Adrian Underbite, "perhaps the world's largest third-grader." Adrian immediately relieves Ben of his bike but manages to ride it over a cliff. Only Ben can rescue him. Will he? ("How extraordinarily terrible," says Ben, but the picture shows him smiling with wicked glee.) Each line of Davies's work -- both text and illustrations -- is filled with motion or humor, and usually both. There are lots of details in the pictures, including a bedraggled-looking blackbird that acts as Ben's sidekick. The surprise twists at the end (including a great fake-out) bring a fresh and welcome perspective to the bully-changes-his-stripes story. susan dove lempke