{"id":4711,"date":"2018-09-02T00:01:40","date_gmt":"2018-09-02T06:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4711"},"modified":"2018-09-01T17:00:17","modified_gmt":"2018-09-01T23:00:17","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-602-featuring-van-thanh-rudd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4711","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #602: Featuring Van Thanh Rudd"},"content":{"rendered":"

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” … is me and my brothers’ bike.”<\/em>
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\nI’ve a bit of art today from Maxine Beneba Clarke’s<\/a><\/strong> The Patchwork Bike<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Candlewick, September 2018), illustrated by Van Thanh Rudd<\/a><\/strong>. First published in Australia and New Zealand in 2016, this is the story of a young girl, her “crazy brothers,” their “fed-up mum,” and their desert “mud-for-walls” home in a third-world country. The “best thing of all in our village,” the girl tells us, “is me and my brothers’ bike.” It is, as the title says, a patchwork bike made of spare parts \u2014 tin-can handles, wood-cut wheels, branches for handlebars, and the like.
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“But the best thing of all in our village is me and my brothers’ bike.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread)<\/center>
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\nRudd illustrates this story via acrylics on cardboard in spacious, uncluttered spreads. (We can often see the markings of the cardboard boxes \u2014 arrows, numbers, tape, etc. The art note on the copyright page indicates this is recycled cardboard, which is important, given that the characters in the book used recycled parts to create this bike they so enjoy.) Rudd captures textures and shadows with great effect. His depictions of the siblings zooming by on their bike are kinetic wonders. As if we’re seeing it from the mother’s perspective, we see a blurry wall of motion in shades of blues and reds. The kids, while on the bike, are untouchable, and Rudd’s streaks of acrylic paints in these moments make that clear. <\/p>\n

The inspiration for the story evidently comes from a piece in a short story collection from Clarke, called Foreign Soil<\/em>. In a closing author’s note, she writes: <\/p>\n

“Poverty is in some ways universal, though the landscape of the book is third-world poverty. I hope this book gets into schools and libraries so that kids from all socioeconomic backgrounds can have access to it. … The girl and the boys in the story love their patchwork bike just as much as a kid with a brand-new, expensive BMX bike might love theirs \u2014 or maybe even more. All they see in it is possibility and fun.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is also a closing author’s note from the illustrator, in which he explains the political significance of many of the choices he makes in the book. (There is, for instance, “BLM” for Black Lives Matter painted on the bark license plate the kids place on the bike.)<\/p>\n

I also hope this book makes its way into school libraries everywhere. “Without minimizing the clear references to economic and racial struggle,” the Publishers Weekly<\/em> review notes, “the words and images in this snapshot story pulse with resourceful ingenuity, joyful exuberance, and layered meanings.” <\/p>\n

Don’t miss this one, on shelves in mid-September. …
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\nTHE PATCHWORK BIKE. Text copyright \u00a9 2016 by Maxine Beneba Clarke. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2016 by Van Thanh Rudd. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.<\/em><\/p>\n

* * *<\/center><\/p>\n

Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome.<\/p>\n

* * * Jules’ Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
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I’m going to keep it short this week so that I can get back to my long weekend. My kicks, one to seven, are time spent with friends this weekend and time with the family. I hope to actually take the day off tomorrow. <\/p>\n

What are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

” … is me and my brothers’ bike.”(Click to enlarge spread, which is sans text)   I’ve a bit of art today from Maxine Beneba Clarke’s The Patchwork Bike (Candlewick, September 2018), illustrated by Van Thanh Rudd. First published in Australia and New Zealand in 2016, this is the story of a young girl, her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}