Independent Reading Level: Grades 3-5
Awards: N/a ( )

I enjoyed this historical fiction book, which takes place during WWII. Marcel loves riding his bike and makes deliveries for his parents. Now that the Nazis are in the village, things are more dangerous. Still, his parents need him to do the deliveries, so he does. Eventually Marcel realizes that his deliveries are more important than he realized and when a friend and her family need his help he digs deep for more courage.

I think kids will enjoy Marcel's passion for bike riding and how he faces his fears. This is a great book to introduce to students as they start exploring historical fiction. ( )

Marcel loves to ride bikes and he loves the Tour de France. Marcel delivers bread for his parents who are local bakers for their town. When he delivers the bread he slips sweets to the guards to get on their good side. Marcel meets a girl name Delphine who also shares the same love for the Tour de France but she has a Jewish background and that can cause huge problems for them in the future.
I would read this book to grades 2nd through 5th. I would use this book to teach students to not be afraid to have a friend of a different religion and to embrace a diverse friend circle. ( )

The setting of this book is in France during WWII. Marcel is a bicycle enthusiast and in France, there is a big bicycle race that takes place, but it was canceled due to the war that was happening. Marcel first became obsessed with the bicycle race three years ago when he saw it for the first time ever. Eventually Marcel meets someone who is just as obsessed as he is with bicycles and her name is Delphine. But he later realizes that she is Jewish, Marcel is a member of a group of people who help the Jewish escape from the Nazis does everything he can to keep her family and her safe. I think this would be a good book for older grade levels because of the lengthy novel. This is a great book to teach children about the war and the emotions that were present during this time. I would use this book during a history lesson. ( )

This book was a really good read. The little boy Marcel delivered loaves of bread for his parents by bicycle. The boys dream was to ride the tour de france on his bicycle, so every time he delivered loaves he imagined riding it. On one of his routes he noticed the secret coding on the loaves of bread and realized his parents were using him as a spy and his parents were apart of the resistance. This book would be great to use while teaching about world war two. Overall, this book was a pretty good read, but about a harsh topic. ( )