The Bicycle Girl: Jyoti Kumari's Amazing Journey Across India: (A True Story of Bravery, Determination, and Family Love Set in India During the Pandem -- Garen Thomas, Hardcover

"[An] inspiring variation on the archetypal hero's journey in which personal courage, family loyalty, and the broader cultural context all play equally strong roles." --School Library Journal

Beautifully illustrated with scenes of contemporary Indian life, this inspiring (and true) story follows a young girl's remarkable bicycle journey across India to bring her father safely home as pandemic restrictions take hold.

It's early in the pandemic in India. The trains have been shut down to prevent contagion. For Jyoti, as for millions of migrant workers, getting home with her injured father will require enormous ingenuity and gumption. Follow the real-life story of a girl who--desperate for her father to survive--rode almost a thousand miles across India with him on the back of a hot-pink twenty-dollar bicycle. Her amazing story, relayed for a young audience by author Garen Thomas and reporter Suhasini Raj, is a portrait of an unassuming girl who made an extraordinary decision and became celebrated across India, breaking entrenched stereotypes of caste and gender. This story of love, determination, problem-solving, and a pink bicycle will speak to young people everywhere.

Author: Garen Thomas,Suhasini Raj
Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
Published: 01/27/2026
Pages: 40
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
ISBN: 9781536233605
Audience: Ages 4-8

Review Citation(s):
School Library Journal 09/01/2025 pg. 91
Kirkus Reviews 11/01/2025

About the Author
Garen Thomas is the author of the New York Times best-selling children's book Yes We Can: A Biography of President Barack Obama and worked as a kids' book editor for Scholastic and Disney-Hyperion and its imprint Jump at the Sun, among other publishers. She lives in New York City.

Suhasini Raj is a New Delhi-based reporter in the South Asia bureau of The New York Times. She has covered everything from the rise of Hindu nationalism under Prime Minister Narendra Modi to how India fared with COVID-19 to gender justice and climate change. In 2021, she and her colleagues won a Human Rights Press Award for a video revealing the plight of stateless Muslims in India.