The Boy Who Biked the World: Riding the Americas

Alastair Humphreys's The Boy Who Biked the World: Riding the Americas is a huge bike adventure for 9 year olds, starting at the very bottom of South America and pointing all the way to Alaska.

What happens

Tom is just a normal boy, and he's already cycled from England to South Africa. This is the second part of his ride. Now he needs to cross an ocean, and a kind old sea captain has offered him a place on his yacht. As long as he doesn't miss the boat.

So of course it opens with Tom stuck in a supermarket queue behind a very slow old lady, with a trolley piled high with bananas (the captain forgot to buy any). You'll probably recognise that jiggly, fidgety, we're-going-to-be-late feeling!

Then he's seasick. LOUDLY. The captain laughs at him, says sorry, and carries on with his colourful sailor swearing ("Batter my barnacles!").

Once he's in Patagonia, a signpost tells him Alaska is 17,848 km away. Tom tells his worries to an albatross he names Albert. What he works out there is lovely and very practical. Don't think about all those miles. Just ride the first one. Then the next.

That idea carries the whole trip. There's a mountain pass so cold he wears his spare pants on his head. There's a salt flat so flat he cycles for half an hour with his eyes shut. There's a family in Bolivia with barely enough food for themselves who share it with him anyway.

It reads like a story but it's packed with real facts. Penguins, glaciers, llamas, Machu Picchu and the Nazca lines all turn up, and Tom keeps stopping to ask your reader something. Have you ever travelled so slowly you could still see where you started that morning?

Alastair Humphreys really did cycle round the world himself, and you can feel it. Aching legs, a sore bum, lonely nights in the tent and a 50-mile freewheel down the other side of a mountain.

Animal lovers might wince at one lunch in Ecuador. Tom orders something called cuy without knowing it's a whole guinea pig (and his sister has a pet one called Mr Squiggles back home).

What to read next

If your reader pores over maps and dreams about faraway places, this is a lovely one to get lost in. And if they want to see where the whole ride began, On the Road to Africa is in the library too, with Tom's class laughing at his big plan before he pedals off through Europe and Africa.