Girl on a Motorcycle

On more subtle display is the goodness Dautheville finds in people everywhere she travels, effectively demonstrating the beauty of cultures different from our own.

Still, word choice aside, this is an exhilarating story of an independent Frenchwoman who challenged prevailing beliefs to follow her heart, to travel, and to observe and describe different cultures and countries (Canada, India, and Afghanistan are highlighted) from a unique, outsider’s point of view... A poetic, visually stunning depiction of a young woman’s travels via motorcycle with dated descriptors. 

Gr 6-10—Based on Anne-France Dautheville's solo ride around the world in the 1970s, this poetic journey follows an unnamed young Parisian of that era who makes good on her dream "to go Elsewhere." In two epic overland segments she travels across Canada, and then from Bombay to Paris—across vast prairies, deserts, and mountain ranges—stopping for warm encounters with local residents in many lands or (a realistic recurring theme) to repair her motorcycle, but mostly spending long hours alone: "Time passes. And doesn't." Using varied layouts and a shifting monochrome color scheme that lends her unframed panels a retro look, Morstad begins by depicting each tool and personal item the traveler carries in her minimal luggage, then goes on to place gracefully posed figures with expressive, delicate features in settings ranging from looming hills and barren, distant vistas to busy cityscapes. Following a climactic or at least epiphanic, visit to the towering Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan (with a poignant mention of their later destruction), the young woman makes her way home at last, arriving "sunburned, bruised, and beaming." Novesky quotes Dautheville's "I want the world to be beautiful, and it is beautiful./ I want people to be good, and they are good," then concludes the spare narrative with a biographical note illustrated with photos. VERDICT For picture book collections aimed at older readers, this is likely to touch something profound in teen or preteen lovers of Henry David Thoreau's Walden as well as those who hear the siren call of travel.—John Peters, Children's Literature Consultant, New York

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

★ Morstad's sophisticated, retro-chic artwork lovingly evokes the time frame dictated by the real life adventures of French writer Anne-France Dautheville, first woman to go around the world by motorcycle . . . The result is part documentary, part dreamscape with strong crossover appeal for fans of history and of romantic adventure, all of whom will find their curiosity assuaged in an endnote that explores Dautheville's experience (complete with photographic confirmation) and Novesky's own dream-chasing research and interview. —BCCB, starred review