“I like to write about things kids do and enjoy, and are universal and timeless,” she added.Īnd while Let’s Dance! was a rhyming picture book with just 60 words, Together We Ride, which also rhymes, has half as many words. I got to thinking, it’s such a milestone for a child and something kids really look forward to.” “And, of course, I remember when I learned how to ride a bike. “We watched her progression,” Bolling recalled. Their route included a circular road where they would regularly see one particular girl, who was about four at the time, learning to ride her bike.

While Let’s Dance !was inspired by her young nieces, Together We Ride was inspired by all the children who took to riding bicycles during the Covid shut down.īolling said during the pandemic she and her husband would take a walk at the end of their remote workdays. Since then Bolling, who serves Greenwich’s three middle schools as an instructional coach in all subjects, has been on a roll. Three months later she signed with an agent. It all started when Bolling, a 29 year educator in Greenwich Schools, published Let’s Dance! in March 2020. Valerie Bolling with a copy of her new children’s book Together We Ride. Later this month, Bolling’s new book, Together We Ride, will be published. In the two years since publishing her first children’s book, Let’s Dance!, a celebration of dances from around the world and the diverse children who enjoy them, plans for eight books have followed!

Together We Swim by Kaylani Juanita