The Bicycle Man

by Allen Say

Multicultural Fiction

This book gives readers a chance to step into the lives of a post World War II Japanese school house.  The school house sits high upon a mountain in a south island of Japan.  As the students are eagerly awaiting a school sporting competition, two American soldiers interrupt the event by casually walking up to the school playground.  The students are unsure how to react because they have never seen American soldiers.  The soldiers begin to put on a show for the children by performing amazing bicycle tricks. The children are amazed and the principal awards the soldiers for their performance.  This book is a great way for children to see how though America and Japan had just been at war with one another, the children did not show hatred towards the American soldiers. Although the children were hesitant, they welcomed the Americans in their competition.  I would use this book in my classroom to show how hatred is not the answer, that each person on this earth is valuable and we are to be accepting of one another.  I would also use this book to offer my students a different point of view by placing themselves in a different cultural mindset.