The Patchwork Bike

Starred review from August 13, 2018
Under a “stretching-out sky at the edge of the no-go desert,” a dark brown child with mirrored sunglasses gives readers a tour of a desert village, from “our mud-for-walls home” to “the sand hill we built to slide down.” But the best thing? Soaring out into the sand on the bike the kids have created from cans, discarded wood, and “a bell that used to be Mum’s milk pot.” In her picture book debut, Clarke’s lines sing with sound and rhythm, evoking the “shicketty shake” sound of the bike on sand hills. Street artist Rudd’s textured paint-and-cardboard collages create a strong sense of a place (the blaze and shadow of the desert) and the people who live there: the narrator’s “fed-up mum” in a hijab and robe, and the “crazy brothers” pictured bouncing on a police car, who write “BLM” on the bike’s license plate—a reference to Black Lives Matter, Rudd notes in an afterword. In an author’s note, Clarke writes about her experiences with poverty: “What these times taught me was how to make something out of nothing.” Without minimizing the clear references to economic and racial struggle, the words and images in this snapshot story pulse with resourceful ingenuity, joyful exuberance, and layered meanings. Ages 6–9.

Starred review from October 1, 2018

PreS-Gr 2-In this Australian import, three siblings who live in a remote village "at the edge of the no-go desert" in a "mud-for-walls home," make do with what they have to entertain themselves. They like to run, jump, and climb, but their pride and joy is their bike, which they cobbled together out of spare parts and junk. The handlebars are made of branches, and the wood-cut wheels go "winketty wonk" as they ride, a nice onomatopoetic touch. The story by itself is superb, but the artwork elevates it further. Rudd's street art approach is raw yet refined as nearly every brushstroke is visible on the repurposed cardboard backgrounds. Much like Javaka Steptoe's Radiant Child or Jane Yolen's What To Do with a Box, the format shows the incredible creativity of young minds combined with the constraints of poverty. Rudd not only perfectly matches the tone culturally but also works in a few nods to the Black Lives Matter movement, which he explains in his artist's note. VERDICT An excellent story and conversation starter.-Peter Blenski, Greenfield Public Library, WI

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 15, 2018
A daring girl in a desert village enjoys riding her brother's bike made of recycled materials in this unusual picture book by Clarke and political artist Rudd, an Australian import. A young girl with dark skin, cornrows, and shiny sunglasses, wearing shorts, sneakers, and a T-shirt, introduces readers to "the village where we live inside our mud-for-walls home," her "crazy brothers" who dance atop a police car, and her "fed-up mum," who looks elegant in a white hijab and dress. The narrator shows readers the sand hill and the "big Fiori tree" where they play boisterously. "But the best thing of all in our village is me and my brothers' bike." The bike's pieces are composed of a bucket seat, tin-can handlebars, wood-cut wheels, and other spare parts; the flag is a flour sack, and the bell is Mum's milk pot. The license plate--a piece of bark--has "BLM" painted on it, a political statement that echoes an earlier image of the narrator's brothers playing atop a junked police car. It's a rugged ride over sand hills and fields and straight through the home (which perhaps explains why Mum is so fed up), and Rudd's urban artwork is a fitting way to show it. Over a cardboard background, streaks of paint define the people, objects, and movements that make up the girl's world. The kids in motion on their bike are rendered in an artful smear that evokes speed. The dark, bright, and desert hues create a blazing-hot world readers can almost step right into.Showcasing the fun to be had in a spare world, this book is just what many of us need right now. (author's note, illustrator's note) (Picture book. 3-9)

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January 1, 2019
A child in an unnamed village "where we live inside our mud-for-walls home" describes the diversions of daily life, including zooming about with "my crazy brothers" on a "patchwork bike" built of scrap. Clarke's spare, mellifluous language is hand-lettered on Rudd's rough, tactile paintings composed of heavy acrylic paint on recycled cardboard. The illustration choices reflect the book's theme--exposing the harsh reality of life while acknowledging the resilience that comes from homemade joy.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from November 1, 2018
A child in an unnamed village where we live inside our mud-for-walls home describes the diversions of daily life: whooping and shrieking and laughing on the sand hill, exploring the desert, and playing atop an abandoned police car accompanied by my crazy brothers, annoying their fed-up mum (shown in what looks like a white abayah), and, best of all, zooming about on their patchwork bike built of scrap. Clarke's spare, mellifluous language dances across the pages, full of vivid imagery and hyphenated turns of poetry ( out in the no-go desert, under the stretching-out sky ), all of it hand-lettered on Rudd's rough, tactile paintings. Working in heavy acrylic paint on recycled cardboard marked by residual packing instructions, trademarks, and barcodes, Rudd re-makes the commonplace paper into the desert's ubiquitous brown; long, dark shadows of the blocky, heavily outlined figures imply a searing sun. These illustration choices reflect the book's very theme?exposing the harsh reality of life that some people face while acknowledging the resilience that comes from homemade joy. Appended author's and illustrator's notes tell personal stories about each one's inspirations. thom barthelmess

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 11, 2016
This deceptively simple story by author Maxine Beneba Clarke is beautifully written and incredibly powerful. It uses evocative language and onomatopoeia to flesh out a world so physically different from most Australian lives, but its universal appeal comes from anchoring the story to the experience of owning a bike. Written from the perspective of a child, we know little about her world other than she lives in a ‘mud-for-walls’ home in a village surrounded by ‘no-go desert’ and ‘stretching-out sky’. The bike she shares with her cheeky brothers has been cobbled together from scavenged objects—handlebars from branches, a bell from mother’s milk pot, and a flag made from a flour sack. The illustrations by artist Van T Rudd of paint on cardboard are stark and simple, often quite abstract, but they effectively flesh out this world. Like all the best writing, The Patchwork Bike asks more questions than it answers, making it a great conversation starter to learn more about other cultures, but it’s also a delightful picture book for kids aged three and up that depicts the universal joy that riding a bike bestows. If it isn’t shortlisted for a CBCA Award in the coming year, I will be very disappointed. Angela Crocombe is the children’s buyer at Readings Carlton