Bring your child to a free reading of Ryan and Robbie’s Bike Ride Adventures and Lao Lao’s Chinese Secrets by Roger Hackett. It’s at 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 20, 2010 at Barnes & Noble/Ala Moana Center.

Kindergarten-Grade 2—Roger Hackett’s passion for Chinese culture, language, and food, as well as his two sons, inspired him to write his first book. His effort at presenting a multicultural family of three generations succeeds in its attempt to show strong family values, teamwork, and Chinese cultural traditions, but it falters in its literary merit. The story relates how the boys’ Lao Lao (grandmother) gave their mother a pendant that held a secret. Upon touching it, she would “know time that [she] did not have before.” The necklace’s secret is not further developed in the story, but later, Ryan and Robbie’s mother makes similar pendants for them and imparts “secrets,” which are more like motivational guidance, to help them tackle challenges. During a bike ride through their neighborhood, the boys recall their mother’s advice to help them deal with the situations they encounter. The story would have benefited from judicious editing. Jared Beckstrand’s work as an animator at Disney Studios is evident in his bright, cartoon-like illustrations. The CD uses the sound of a gong as the page-turn signal and features soft Asian-inspired instrumental music. Liu Quinjia, the book’s Chinese cultural advisor, narrates the tale in a somewhat flat voice; intermittent laughter and the voices of Hackett’s sons who echo the narrator in some places are a bit confusing. A second audio track includes the pronunciation of the book’s Mandarin Chinese phrases and their translations.—Ruth Lorbert, East Woods School, Oyster Bay, NY  Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.