Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude

This is an adorable tale within a tale of two competing narrators, a boy and a girl, who use their imagination to take turns storytelling as they relay the adventures of a princess whose precious ponies have been stolen by a giant who wants to make them into a stew. The male narrator clashes with the female character's vision for the story as he introduces the hero: Cool Motorcycle Dude who at first seems out of place in the story and conflicts with the whole vibe. The book is full of humor relating to gender differences in children as the two collaborate and compromise their two perspectives until they end up with a coherent story they are both happy with in the end. The story is cleverly written with three different illustrators to show more convey the story within the story and the two different minds coming together. show less

I have mixed feelings about Kevin O’malee’s story “Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude.” The book outlines a story from the point of view of a young boy and a young girl as they collaborate to tell the reader what is happening. Although I believe that the story line is interesting in theory, the book itself is not impressive. The boy is a very stereotypical boy, adding in details about motorcycles, dragons and battles; the girl is a very stereotypical girl, including fairy tale elements with princesses and romance. I did not enjoy this because I do not think that it is true to life for many children. Although some children many relate, I believe that books should display the complexity of human nature, not follow the very specific show more gender stereotypes. I also thought the book was a little too complex for young readers, but a little too simple for older readers. For example, the illustrations and text in the book differ between the children and the story’s characters, and the two children telling the story add in speech bubbles arguing about the story line as well. Furthermore, the overall message of the book was not clearly conveyed as the story simply ended without any final collaboration. show less

I don't think I have laughed as hard as I had reading this book. Meeting Kevin O'Malley, I should have expected this, but it really got me laughing. This book challenges gender roles by showing that both girls and boys can enjoy any kind of story by displaying one written in a tag-team by a boy and a girl. I like the fact that the children interject in the book to show their opinions. It's something that isn't utilized enough in children's literature. The typeface also alternates by which child is telling the story. This can show the different voices and their ideas that go into the book. I also enjoy the fact that there are three illustrators. O'Malley's illustration of the children obviously juts out from the detailed work of Heyer show more and Goto. Heyer's illustrations for the girl's story are elegant and soft, whereas Goto's illustrations for the boy's story are bold and rash and energetic. This parodies the stereotypes of the genders, which falls apart by the end where only O'Malley illustrates. show less

I had mixed feelings about this book. This story has two main characters, a boy who likes motorcycles and fighting and a girl who like princesses and love. These characters were arguing throughout the entire book. The boy and girl were doing a project where they had to make up a story together and they could not agree on the story'a plot. The story went from being about a princess to being about a fight and then about love, and so on. The characters seemed like flat and stereotypical characters- the classic "girl liked princesses and ponies" and "boy liked black and motorcycles". I would have liked to see some variance from the typical gender stereotypes. The language in the story was very informal and casual, which would be easy for a show more younger child to read. But even the font style was different for the boy and the girl. The girl's font was very bubbly and the boy's font was very bold and dark. I enjoy the variation in font throughout the book, but this also seemed very stereotypical. Finally, the plot was not very enjoyable. The boy and girl continued to argue throughout the entire book. I would have preferred if they found a way to overcome their challenges and agree on an ending to their story. Instead, they seemed to agreed to disagree by deciding the princess can have a baby but it must be a boy. The big message of this book seemed to be that boys and girls will disagree, but you have to find a way to work together. I would not recommend this book to a student because the big idea of this book is not something I believe is important for students to know and possibly live by. show less

I read the book Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude and I really enjoyed it. This book is completely different than any other story I have read. It involves a boy and a girl trying to tell a story. They fight over how the story should flow and whether it should be more romantic or action packed. They attempt to tell the story together and it takes them a really long time before they can agree on what should happen next. The one downside to this book is that it operates on gender stereotypes. The girl is the one who wants the princesses and love stories while the boy wants the violence and motorcycles. It would have been neat to see the children in the book to defy gender stereotypes. For example, the boy could have tried to have the show more princess marry the motorcycle dude or the girl could have had the motorcycle dude be disinterested in the princess. I found the plot to be very comedic and it definitely held my interest. Elementary school children would probably find the exchanges between the two main characters to be funny and enjoyable. show less

A "He Said - She Said" tale for young readers, in which a boy and girl must tell a fairytale together for a class project, Kevin O'Malley's Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude would undoubtedly make an engaging story-hour selection. The humorous back and forth between the two narrators, who are each appalled by the other's narrative, will produce some giggles, and the bright colors will hold the attention.

Unfortunately, although I can see that this title will appeal to the age-group for which it is intended, I didn't really enjoy it myself. While the gender stereotypes - the girl is romantic, and obsessed with princesses; the boy is interested in muscle "dudes," and the gory details of battle - may ring true, they nevertheless grated. The show more illustrations, which switch back and forth between the lush, fairy-tale style of Carol Heyer, and the comic-book action style of Scott Goto, felt rather flat to me. All in all, this is one of those books that does what it sets out to do - it just doesn't do it for me. show less

OMG. This sounds just like my students when I would give them a collaborative writing assignment! This is a cute collaborative story based on boy vs. girl ideas. The illustrations are well done and the story wraps up with humor.