ReadItDaddy's First Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 6th April 2018 - "Cycle City" by Alison Farrell (Chronicle Children's Books)

The joy of pedalling around a glorious and busy little town has never been captured before with such joy in a children's picture book...
So say we of this week's first Picture Book of the Week, the utterly adorable "Cycle City" by Alison Farrell.

Combining a cast of amazing animal characters, their sweet, sweet bikes and a glorious task of spotting different folk to invite to the amazing Starlight Parade, we fell head over heels in love with this one from the moment we turned the front cover.

Little Etta the Elephant is excited as she's going to stay with her aunt in Cycle City.

Everyone bikes everywhere, and as you can imagine for a huge place filled with lots of different animals, there are bikes of all shapes and sizes.

Big bikes for lots of people to ride all at once. Tiny bikes for little kids to whizz around on. Bikes with wings, with cargo carriers, awesome bikes shaped like cupcakes. You name it, and there's probably a bike shaped like it in amazing Cycle City.

The Starlight Parade Committee and their incredible multi-seat committee bike (We've actually seen bikes like this in real life)

Etta decides that she needs to dress up, so both Etta and Auntie Elephant go in search of the perfect costume, as Cycle City's mayor helps to deliver invites to the parade.

There's excitement and adventure, and of course the obligatory stop for lunch.

The mayor has a tough job to do. Make sure all the invites go out to the right people for the parade!

Alison perfectly captures all the things that used to make Richard Scarry's books so essential for busy little ones. Combining awesome animals in the sort of setting that we'd all love to spend a day in, "Cycle City" really is something rather special - and you'll need to read, re-read and re-read it time and time again to spot all the awesome little details and jokes happening across all the pages.

Utterly perfect!

Etta becomes the Parade Queen! Time to get this show on the road!

C's favourite bike: The cupcake bike, of course, and the awesome Rabbity Rainbow box bike.

Daddy's favourite bike: The Gelato-selling bike, who doesn't love ice cream!?

"Cycle City" by Alison Farrell is out now, published by Chronicle Children's Books (kindly supplied for review).