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SOCIAL SCIENCES
McCormick, Patricia , Babakar, Mevan

The Bicycle: How an Act of Kindness Changed a Young Refugee's Life

40 pp. | HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray | May, 2024 | Trade ISBN 9780063056992 $19.99
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Yas Imamura. When her family must flee their beloved home in Kurdistan, young Mevan's status as a refugee makes her feel smaller and smaller until she makes herself invisible. The family travels from Azerbaijan to Russia to the Netherlands, where a kind man sees her, despite her ability to hide herself, and gives her the perfect gift -- a red bicycle -- making her feel "a hundred feet tall." This true story, gently told in the third person and coauthored by Babakar herself, is brought to life through evocative mixed-media illustrations, which capture the deep loneliness of leaving a home full of friends and family. The illustrations shift from the lush greenery of Kurdistan to the stark concrete of Soviet Bloc apartments to a colorful and joyous double-page spread when Mevan first rides her bicycle. An epilogue and author's note describe more of Babakar's experience as a young refugee and tell her story of returning to the Netherlands as an adult and reuniting with the kind apartment manager who gave her the bike. A reflective story about the isolation of life as a child refugee and about the enduring effects of an act of kindness.
Reviewer: Laura Koenig | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2024

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