A compelling picture book about the journey of a single bicycle that plays an important role in many lives. The bike is originally purchased by a boy in North America who eventually outgrows it and donates it to an international organization that provides bicycles to people in Africa. The bicycle is shipped overseas to Ghana, and from there to the country of Burkina Faso, where it ends up with a girl named Alisetta. She uses the bike for transportation to and from the fields to tend crops and to sell things at the market. She eventually donates it to a group that repairs it and turns it into a medical clinic ambulance in another village. Haridata, a young woman who volunteers for the clinic, rides the ambulance from village to village tending to the people in need of care. The lengthy primary narrative is complemented by a much simpler one that appears as display type on each page spread in this picture book that uses a fictional story to provide a concrete example of repurposing, cause-and-effect, and caring. A helpful author’s note tells more about a number of programs that repurpose bicycles in local communities and internationally. (Ages 6–9)

Leo loves his red bicycle, which he calls Big Red. When he grows out of it, he donates it to an organization that brings it to Burkina Faso. There, Alisetta uses it to help with the sorghum harvest and rides it to the market and uses the extra money to send her younger siblings to school. Finally, the bicycle becomes a bicycle ambulance and helps bring injured people to clinics in rural settings. It is a story about giving and how passing your unused things along can help a lot of people.

A CCBC Choice, 2016. Outstanding International Books, 2016. Hackmatack Children's Choice Award Nominee for English Non-Fiction (2017), Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize Nominee (2016).

Author is a journalist in Canada, and loves riding her own bicycle.

Canada. Originally published in English by Tonawands/Kids Can Press in 2015.