A Bike Like Sergio’s

Who wouldn’t want a bike like Sergio’s? Especially if you didn’t even own a bike. Ruben wants a bike badly, and his birthday is coming up, but there are no guarantees that his parents will have the money to buy him a bike.
Unexpectedly, Ruben receives a windfall that is the answer to his prayers. It is the wrong thing to keep the money, but Ruben will get to buy his cherished bike.

Ultimately, Ruben learns an important lesson about ill-gotten gains. When he has a loss, he begins to understand that ill-gotten gains have a cost. The author does not create a completely happy nor pat ending to this story, so it has believability.

Maribeth Boelts has written over twenty children’s books. The illustrator, Noah Z. Jones, strikes just the right note of nerdy-looking characters for this book. His own website deserves a look for more wonderful drawings. This is just the right book for the moral lesson that goodness is its own reward.