Imprint
- Lothian Children's Books
- Lothian Children's Books
- Lothian Children's Books
For National Curriculum Key Stage 1, Interest age: from c 5 years, Fiction, Picture books, Picture storybooks
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Imprint
Lothian Children's Books
- Paperback Dec 27, 2017 | 9780734418609 | RRP $16.99 Buy Now
- Hardback Oct 25, 2016 | 9780734416681 | RRP $26.99 Buy Now
- e-Book Oct 25, 2016 | 9780734416698 | RRP $11.99 Buy Now
-
Imprint
Lothian Children's Books
- Paperback Dec 27, 2017 | 9780734418609 | RRP $16.99 Buy Now
- Hardback Oct 25, 2016 | 9780734416681 | RRP $26.99 Buy Now
- e-Book Oct 25, 2016 | 9780734416698 | RRP $11.99 Buy Now
-
Imprint
Lothian Children's Books
- Paperback Dec 27, 2017 | 9780734418609 | RRP $16.99 Buy Now
- Hardback Oct 25, 2016 | 9780734416681 | RRP $26.99 Buy Now
- e-Book Oct 25, 2016 | 9780734416698 | RRP $11.99 Buy Now
Gallery
What's the best fun in the whole village? Riding the patchwork bike we made! A joyous picture book for children by award-winning author Maxine Beneba Clarke.
Winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Picture Book Award 2019
Winner of the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Crichton Award for Debut Illustrator 2017
Selected as a CBCA Honour Picture Book 2017
Shortlisted for PATRICIA WRIGHTSON PRIZE FOR CHILDREN'S LITERATURE 2018
'Beautifully written and incredibly powerful.' Books + Publishing
'this book is just what many of us need right now' - starred Kirkus Review
When you live in a village at the edge of the No-Go Desert, you need to make your own fun. That's when you and your brothers get inventive and build a bike from scratch, using everyday items like an old milk pot (maybe mum is still using it, maybe not) and a used flour sack. You can even make a numberplate from bark, if you want. The end result is a spectacular bike, perfect for going bumpity-bump over sandhills, past your fed-up mum and right through your mud-for-walls home.
A delightful story from multi-award-winning author Maxine Beneba Clarke, beautifully illustrated by street artist Van T Rudd.
Praise for The Patchwork Bike
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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. - Books + Publishing
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this book is just what many of us need right now - Kirkus Reviews
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Clarke's poetically compressed language hurtles joyfully along, while Rudd's illustrations, made on cardboard boxes with spirited swaths of paint, burst with irrepressible life. - The New York Times
Discover more
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Picture Books Guaranteed to Spark Joy
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Children’s Book Council of Australia Notables 2017
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Read Along With... | Maxine Beneba Clarke, author of THE PATCHWORK BIKE
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Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke - Book trailer
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Read Along With... | Maxine Beneba Clarke, author of THE PATCHWORK BIKE
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Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke - Book trailer
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Picture Books Guaranteed to Spark Joy
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Children’s Book Council of Australia Notables 2017
Maxine Beneba Clarke
Maxine Beneba Clarke is an Australian poet and writer of Afro-Caribbean descent. She is the ABIA and Indie award-winning author of Carrying the World (2016), Foreign Soil (2017) and The Hate Race (2018). She is the author of five books for children, including the CBCA and Boston Globe/Horn Prize award-winning picture book The Patchwork Bike (2016, illustrated by Van T Rudd), and the critically acclaimed Wide Big World (2018, illustrated by Isobel Knowles). Maxine is the author-illustrator of two picture books, Fashionista (2019) and When We Say Black Lives Matter (2020). She also illustrated the picture book 11 Words for Love (2022), written by Randa Abdel-Fattah. We Know A Place is the third picture book she has both written and illustrated.
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