The Bicycle, written by Mevan Babakar & Patricia McCormick, illustrated by Yas Imamura, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

This is a very special book; one which I think children will remember forever. Why? Because it shows the very worst and the very best of humanity. It shows those things particularly powerfully because this story is true.

Mevan and her family had lived in Kurdistan for generations. It was a place 'where figs fell from the trees and the air smelled like honeysuckle'. It was where Mevan's family and friends were. My four-year-old grandson was particularly interested in the grocer who gave Mevan a sweet!

                    

                But then the Iraqi government forced Kurds like Mevan and her family to flee their                    homes.

                

                    

Mevan and her parents travelled to Turkey, on to Azerbaijan then Russia, unwelcome and with poor Mevan feeling smaller and smaller. 

But they found kindness in the Netherlands where  Mevan was fascinated by all the people riding bikes. She'd never seen bikes before. She longed to ride one, but she had no bike until ...

 

 ... Egbert, caretaker of the building she was living in, gave Mevan a red bike that 'made Mevan feel a hundred feet tall'.

A year later, Mevan and her parents were told that there was a new home waiting for them 'in a country where they would be safe, where they would never have to leave. Mevan and her family had to leave in such a hurry that she never got the chance to say goodbye to Egbert.' 

              

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They settled in the UK, and Mevan 'never forgot the man who taught her how big a small act of kindness can be.'

In a heartwarming Epilogue we learn that Mevan grew up and visited that land of figs and honeysuckle, seeing grandparents but, poignantly, 'the grocer was gone', as were many others.

Grown-up Mevan also visited the Netherlands, and she asked if anybody knew of kind Egbert who had 'seen her when others hadn't' and give her that important red bike? They did ... 

 

What's Mevan doing now? She's doing important and positive work towards a better world for everyone 

                              https://mevanbabakar.com/     

It's an astonishing story, as you can tell beautifully told and illustrated. Highly recommended.