Mountain Bike Mania (New Matt Christopher Sports Library)
Grade 3-6-This sturdy and fast-moving novel posits a simple situation: an avowedly unathletic sixth-grader, pushed by his parents to find an after-school activity, discovers and falls in love with mountain biking. Will and Danny's friendship is endangered by Will's new passion and Danny's resistance to it. Both characters are well drawn, and their dialogue-whether angry or affectionate-rings quite true and reveals the common sense and good hearts of both boys. Needless to say, Christopher tidily resolves their disagreements as well as the book's subplots-a conflict between bikers and hikers; Will's parents' tendency to work too much and leave him a latchkey kid; and the bike club's need for new members and better PR, especially to make up for the behavior of an immature member. The issues that Christopher addresses-usage of public spaces, responsibility to the environment, the necessity of parents balancing work and child rearing, friends respecting one another's differences-are worked into the plot, rather than placed atop it, and Will's loving family environment, if a tad too perfect, is also reassuring and endearing.Coop Renner, Coldwell Elementary-Intermediate School, El Paso, TXCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.