The Bicycle

Mevan loves her home in lush hilly Kurdistan in the northern corner of Iraq where she lives with her family who have lived there for generations. So much love surrounds her that she feels ten feet tall. However when Iraqi soldiers push the Kurds from their homes into the mountains everything changes. With heavy hearts Mevan’s parents leave behind other family members and friends in the community and set off in a van towards Turkey. But they’re not allowed to stay so what is to be an arduous journey continues to Azerbaijan and thence to Russia. The girl feels increasingly small – virtually invisible. After two arduous years in chilly Russia, Mevan’s family have saved sufficient money to leave and they fly to the Netherlands where they’re given an apartment to stay in until they can find a real home. Mevan watches from the window (we see how lonely she is looking at everybody on bicycles enjoying themselves) and wishes she could join them. Then to her surprise and joy a kind man named Egbert, responsible for fixing things in the apartment building, brings her a shiny new red bike: at last Mevan feels more like one of the other children. A year later the family receive good news – a permanent new home in a safe country awaits them, but in their haste to leave, the girl doesn’t get an opportunity to say farewell to Egbert. However, she never forgets his kindness.

The book concludes with a short account of how as an adult, Mevan was able to use the internet and track down Egbert to thank him for his kindness and we’re left with a hugely positive message of how important it is to show kindness to other people, especially those who are refugees. An ideal story (written in collaboration with author/journalist Patricia McCormick) to share and sort discussions on the topics of refugees and being kind to others, both of which the author talks of in her introductory note. Illustrator Yas Imamura deserves a special mention for her illustrations which are both culturally and emotionally aware and further deepen the impact of the moving narrative.