Lola the Bicycle
I initially found it challenging to explain to children a concept as critical and abstract as human rights. I thought of potential metaphors that could make the topic and the message attractive and eventually settled on a village of bicycles where the animated bicycles became the main characters. For example, the fact that not all bikes had access to the “clinic repairing services” represented the right to health. As another example, the “garage” conditions where the bikes lived represented the right to decent housing and water. I found that using the bicycle metaphor immediately sparked the interest of younger readers.
About the Book
Lola is a girl bicycle who lives in a multi-color bicycle village. Although genuinely she feels that everyone is equal in the village, she observes how the bicycles are treated differently depending on their color or gender, for example, girl-bikes don’t usually go to school. This realization leads her to express that she wants to go to school like the boy-bikes do. Moreover, the difficult living conditions in the bicycle village force Lola’s parents to make a decision: migrate or stay and improve the situation by demanding that community leaders be more responsible in promoting and protecting basic human/bicycle rights.
“That same night, my brothers and I had gone to bed early, but I couldn’t sleep. It was cold and raining. The roof of the small garage where we lived had holes. The floor was made of clay, so when it got wet moisture entered through the tires, which froze up to the chain making it get stuck. When you’re older, the wheels are bigger and take you away from the ground, but when you’re little you can almost touch it and if it’s cold, you feel cold. The above, however, did not happen in all garages.”
