Author: Jeff Stone

“Here you go, daddy.”

My three year old thrust this book into my hands while spending time at the library. I’m assuming he was attracted to the light blue cover, but I thanked him and opened up to the first chapter to show I was interested.

It seemed like a fun book, so why not?

This is the start of a second novel series from Stone, taking place after the events from the first series. However, even though I didn’t read the first series, I was not at a loss coming into this one. It was setup in a way that allow the reader to dive right in.

At its core, this is the story of a grandson going out of his way to help his grandfather. Its dressing is bike racing and martial arts, which fit nicely.

Considering its audience of younger readers, it has enough depth to bring in an older reader like myself and the pace is enough to keep you flipping pages until the end. At no point, did I ever feel like the book was dragging.

Phoenix is a likeable character and while an audience familiar with the grandfather’s story would know more about him, I felt not knowing the history enticed me to read the first series. However, what really sparked me was how fitting this would be in my own classroom library.

It’s worth the read and you will walk away with a significant amount of knowledge about bikes and bike competitions.