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Bicycle Blues, Anthony Masters (2000)
Barrington Stoke 1 902260 66 X paperback 71pp £4.50
An adventure story featuring a stolen bicycle aimed at readers
aged around seven or eight
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When Jamie's new mountain bike is stolen, he is determined to get it
back. His quest to do so involves a new alliance, a fight on some wasteground
and a daring raid on an old garage. It is a nice, simple, story, that
is rich in useful moral lessons - not least the need for bicycles to be
securely locked, if you don't want the local roughs to make off with them.
Occasionally the dialogue seems more country estate than council estate.
"Fancy having a rusty padlock that doesn't work", one hard-case
taunts our hero. He sounds as though he has jumped from the pages of Jennings,
rather than being a 'gang member' on 'a run-down estate'. It is not the
sort of detail that would put off a child in the target age group, however.
And the vernacular delights of Irvine Welsh are probably best saved for
teens.
PS Dec 09
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