Review by Booklist Review
The adventurous spirit of Anne-France Dautheville is distilled in this arresting ode to her life, though it's only in the back matter that her name is revealed. It begins in Paris, 1973, with "a girl" gripped by wanderlust and a wish to write about the world, so she packs her motorcycle's saddlebags--the detailed spread of their contents, from lipstick to pliers, is a treat--and hits the road. Wonder, awe, and bravery are paramount in her ensuing travels, which include visits to Canada, Afghanistan, India, and Turkey. In fact, she becomes the first woman to travel around the world on a motorcycle--another piece of information reserved for the back matter. Powerfully understated, the story reveals Dautheville as a girl who can. A girl unafraid of hard work or of taking a fall. She defies conventions and gender norms through her choices, namely showing the world what a girl is capable of. These acts are spectacularly framed in Morstad's illustrations, which favor dark pencil-and-ink drawings on saturated backdrops ranging from ocher to orchid, periwinkle to peach. Her spreads of Dautheville beneath the northern lights and later in silhouette aboard a train traveling at sunset are particular showstoppers. On more subtle display is the goodness Dautheville finds in people everywhere she travels, effectively demonstrating the beauty of cultures different from our own. Women in Focus: The 19th in 2020
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In 1973, a 28-year-old woman got on a motorcycle in Paris and circled the globe alone, crossing continents, scaling mountains, and visiting parts of the planet that most people never see. This engaging picture book biography by Novesky (Cloth Lullaby) is full of the sense of freedom that its subject, Anne-France Dautheville, a white woman, reveled in. Although things went wrong--her bike broke down repeatedly, and she fell often--her experiences as a traveler affirmed her expectations: "I want the world to be beautiful, and it is beautiful. I want people to be good, and they are good." Morstad uses delicate lines and luminous wash to draw the things the "girl" carried ("girl," used throughout, is an English translation of the French word demoiselle, which Dautheville used for herself), the people she met, and the scenery she rode through. Readers follow her from the Yukon, where she finds transcendent beauty in a warm pool under the Northern Lights, to Afghanistan, where she climbs the great Buddhas of Bamiyan, and home to Paris. She drinks in new experiences and brings new ideas everywhere she goes: "Who are you? ...Where are you going?" girls in Bombay ask her. Though the book fails to address matters of privilege inherent in global travel, it's a testimony to fearlessness that challenges traditional gender expectations. Ages 5--9. (Sept.)
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Review by Horn Book Review
This picture-book biography of the first woman to complete a solo motorcycle trip around the world begins in 1973 Paris. Wishing to see and write about "Elsewhere," the titular "girl" (French journalist Anne-France Dautheville, unnamed until the back matter) flies with her motorcycle to Montreal. From there, she rides to Anchorage; flies to Tokyo and then Bombay; rides until her bike breaks down and then takes a train to Delhi; and so on until, tens of thousands of miles and four months later, she returns to Paris. Novesky's lyrical text, full of lush sensory detail, emphasizes the character's wonder but also her determination: "Ribbons of dust unfurl behind her. Dirt stings her eyes. Sun burns her skin. Air vibrates with heat. She falls often...But she always gets back up." The retro 1970s palette and travel-poster aesthetic of Morstad's pencil, ink, and digital illustrations capture the very different types of beauty the motorcyclist encounters in bustling cities, welcoming villages, and wide-open landscapes. One particularly breathtaking spread portrays the woman's small form floating in a luminous teal pool far below the vast, jewel-toned swirls of the aurora borealis. Based on Dautheville's own writings (especially Une demoiselle sur une moto, 1973), this is a lovely tribute to both the pioneering motorcyclist and the joys of the open road. Katie Bircher November/December 2020 p.128(c) Copyright 2020. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
"She dreams of wandering the world." Striking, light-filled illustrations with the look of mid-20th-century monotone prints and informative, evocative text tell the true story of Anne-France Dautheville, a White journalist who left her home in Paris in 1972 to embark on a decadelong, international motorcycle journey that she depicted in a series of articles and memoirs. While her writing is mentioned, the focus here is on the travels themselves, told with realistic, dreamlike detail from the perspective of a lone woman imbued with a sense of awe and freedom. Obstacles involving falls from and repairs of her bike are included, and the surprise and respect she received from girls along the way help depict the view and position of women during the time period. The use of the word girl in the title is a misnomer as Dautheville was 28 when she began her travels, though this may be a translation issue (the title echoes that of Dautheville's 1973 memoir, Une demoiselle sur une moto); more disappointing is the use of the word girl throughout the book, from both a feminist perspective and a factual one. 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. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 67.8% of actual size.) A poetic, visually stunning depiction of a young woman's travels via motorcycle with dated descriptors. (biographical note, author's note) (Picture book/biography. 6-10) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
