The Patchwork Bike

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       

‘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       

‘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.