Together We Ride

Valerie Bolling has been an educator for twenty-seven years. Valerie serves as the co-chair of the NESCBWI Equity and Inclusion Team and is a member of SCBWI, the Authors Guild, and NCTE. She lives in Stamford, CT, and you can find her at valeriebolling.com.Kaylani Juanita illustrates inclusive picture books, such as Ta-Da!, When Aiden Became a Brother, and Magnificent Homespun Brown, for which she received the 2021 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award. Her mission as an artist is to support the stories of the underrepresented and create new ways for people to imagine themselves. She currently lives in Fairfield, CA. You can find her on Instagram @kaylanijuanita.

“Bolling’s brief and inventive rhyming text perfectly conveys the action and emotions involved in an inaugural bike ride. Illustrations extend the appealing story . . . the crowning elaboration on the text is the art’s celebration of Black hair: the girl’s double Afro puffs proudly poof out below her bike helmet. (Safety first, but this girl is not letting that helmet cramp her style.) . . .”—The Horn Book Magazine, starred review