1. Alliteration
2. Art techniques
3. Book design
4. Collage
5. Design
6. Family
7. Imagination
8. Literary techniques
9. Recycling
10. Relationships
11. Siblings
12. Visual literacy

The jacket cover of ‘The Patchwork Bike’ immediately declares, ‘Here is a book with a difference.’ The boldly embossed, shiny bright yellow title appears hastily painted. Below a Black child perches on her makeshift bike. The background appears to be a discarded cardboard box. ‘The Patchwork Bike’ is the perfect title for this book. Not only does this story focus on children’s creativity—patching together various bits and pieces to create a most inventive bike—but the illustrator offers a child-focussed story.

Maxine Beneba Clarke’s language is playful and inventive featuring child-like language and imagery. Her figurative language: ‘bumpety bump’ and ‘shicketty shake’ create a sense of fun. For both author and illustrator, this is their first picture book although both are highly experienced in their respective creative fields.

The illustration style and images are unexpected and inventive but suit the story about a ‘patchwork bike.’ Instead of the usual white or coloured paper background, there is cardboard with bits of tape, with random words and drawings scattered across corrugated rumples. The children are highly inventive as evidenced by their bike. There is a bent bucket seat, handlebar made of tree branches that ‘shicketty shake,’ tin can handles, wooden wheels that spin ‘winketty wonk’, a flour sack flag, painted-on lights and a bark numberplate with the initials ‘BLM’, a sophisticated reference to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement. This very inventive creation is matched by the bike’s adventuresome travels as it races through the village, right through the children’s mud-for-walls home and past their ‘fed-up’ mum.

This is Van T Rudd’s first picture book. Maxine Beneba Clarke invited him to illustrate ‘The Patchwork Bike’ after she saw his street art. The combination of these two activists, each in their own sphere of influence, adds sophisticated layers to this story with its subtle references to race and poverty. Cardboard as the medium to showcase this story is well chosen to reflect this story with its subtle reference to a lifestyle with few extras.

Maxine Beneba Clarke is the celebrated Afro-Caribbean Australian writer and slam poet. Van Thanh Rudd is a political street artist, muralist and sculptor of Vietnamese and Australian descent.

1. Let’s Talk Picture Books: Children’s book design and illustration 4 Sept 2018 interview by Mel Schuit with Van T Rudd about the creation of ‘The Patchwork Bike’ http://www.letstalkpicturebooks.com/2018/09/lets-talk-illustrators-80-van-thanh-rudd.html
2. The Horn Book Inc 3 Jan 2020 ‘The Patchwork Bike: Author Maxine Beneba Clarke’s 2019 BGHB Picture Book Award Speech https://www.hbook.com/story/the-patchwork-bike-author-maxine-beneba-clarkes-2019-bghb-picture-book-award-speech
3. The Horn Book Inc 14 June 2019 ‘Five questions for 2019 Boston Globe – Horn Book Picture Book Award winners Maxine Beneba Clarke and Van Than Rudd https://www.hbook.com/story/five-questions-for-maxine-beneba-clarke-and-van-thanh-rudd
4. Kirkus 12 Nov 2018 article by James Feder ‘Maxine Beneba Clarke & Van Thanh Rudd: The Patchwork Bike showcases the fun to be had in a spare world’ provides background on both creators and the wider social context for this picture book https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/maxine-beneba-clarke-van-thanh-rudd/
5. Copyright Agency Reading Australia Teaching Resources for ‘The Patchwork Bike’ https://readingaustralia.com.au/lesson/the-patchwork-bike/
6. ABC News 7 Nov 2018 article by Hannah Reich ‘Maxine Beneba Clarke writes happy end for real life playground encounter with racism in new book’ about her childhood experience with racism and writing for children https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-07/maxine-beneba-clarke-childrens-book-difference-wide-big-world/10466100
7. Hachette Australia profile of Van T Rudd https://www.hachette.com.au/van-t-rudd/
8. Hachette Australia profile of Maxine Beneba Clarke https://www.hachette.com.au/maxine-beneba-clarke/