Three years ago I wrote a review of “The Adventures of Mimi and Moto,” a children?s book that follows “blue-eyed Mimi, a female monkey, and green-eyed Moto, her male companion, as they ride dirt bikes, sportbikes, choppers, a sidecar and what looks like a Gold Wing.” At the time, my then six-month-old niece Nina was too young to understand the words, but she enjoyed having the book read to her by her parents before bed. Nina loves story time so much that she demands it before naps or nightly bedtime.

Nina is now three-and-a-half, and although she hasn?t started riding a little dirt bike yet (fingers crossed!), she?s become proficient at riding a Strider balance bike. She?s also quite precocious and has an amazing command of language for a girl her age.
When the authors of “Mimi and Moto,” the wife-and-husband team of Nancy Gerloff and Mark Augustyn, sent me their latest book, “Mimi and Moto Ride the Alphabet,” that same day I stopped by Nina?s house on my way home from the Rider office. She had been wearing a Wonder Woman outfit all day and was thrilled to get a new book.

Nina is intrigued by knobby tires. (Photo by Kelly Drevenstedt)

I figured her mother or father would read the book before she went to bed that night, but Nina pestered her mother to read it to her NOW. My sister-in-law Kelly was in the middle of feeding a bottle to Nina?s seven-month-old brother, Felix, so I sat down on the couch, still wearin...