Tillie Anderson appeared to be a typical hard-working immigrant girl, laboring in a tailor shop. But when a man on a bicycle rides by the shop, she begins saving up her money to buy one of the new-fangled contraptions, despite warnings from her mother that bicycles aren't for ladies.
Tillie wasn't interested in riding gracefully around a maypole, like other girls; she started training to get strong enough to ride fast, really fast. But there was a problem--her 19th century dresses. Soon Tillie designed herself a more aerodynamic bicycle outfit, one that scandalized the whole neighborhood. But Tillie didn't care if her friends and family thought she was "wicked"; she soon was entering her first cycling races, breaking women's records left and right and becoming the women's bicycle-racing champion of the world. She became famous, with poets writing her odes, bicycle companies looking for endorsements, and reporters wanting to interview her. Some male cyclists thought Tillie was "unwomanly," and doctors even examined her to see what the effects of all that hard exercise would be on a woman's body. They found her, not surprisingly, to be a "mass of muscle," and put a picture of her leg in the newspaper! Imagine how shocking in those days, when a mere glimpse of a woman's ankle was viewed as something sexy and forbidden.
The reader can't help but be inspired by the story of this remarkable woman, a celebrity in the era before female athletes were accepted. Sarah McMenemy's bright and colorful gouache and collage illustrations are simply charming, and add immeasurably to the appeal of this tale. The opening end papers show the accessories of a proper Victorian lady, depicted in a soft, feminine lavender, while the end papers at the conclusion of the book feature a year-by-year breakdown of Tillie's records and her cycling victories, seen on a background of a vibrant lime green, decorated with trophies, Tillie on her bicycle, and swirls of speed. This is a great story to share with girls of all ages.
