The Patchwork Bike

An exuberant, evocative, and striking window into play and imagination amid the landscape of third-world poverty.

Top 100 pick because:

I love the illustrative style of Van Thanh Rudd. I like to paint on cardboard so I love that it was an important part of the book, and made complete sense for the entirety and integrity of the narrative. The text has an interesting flow and provides simple yet joyful explanations for their community, and cycling.

Gorgeous -- the images, the spirit of the kids, the ingenuity and imagination.

A young girl extols the virtues of the shared bike she and her siblings built out of discarded materials. The rhythmic words combined with the images painted on cardboard to emphasize the recycling aspect of this book make it a must read.

Acrylic paint on recycled cardboard creates a strikingly different look that sets this book apart. A young black girl and her two brothers take joy in their patchwork bike, zooming through the village and their home.

Note from author, note from illustrator

See also: Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love, This Is How We Do It by Matt Lamothe, Home by Carson Ellis

even poor kids can have fun, with their made up, put together with scraps bicycle.