Bahar

Bahar is new at school and she hasn’t quite settled in yet. When the teacher asks her to tell the class what her parents do, she blurts out that one of her two mothers is a rock star, and that she doesn’t have a father (that was a tadpole). Her mother, however, is not a world-famous drummer. She’s only just started taking drumming lessons. And now Bahar has promised that mum will come and perform at school. What on earth is she going to do?

In ‘Bahar Bizarre’ Michael De Cock has written a joyful and uncomplicated story about growing up and identity. How are you supposed to know what you want to become? And how soon do you need to know? De Cock is great at bringing out the role parents play. Bahar is a happy little girl with a unique outlook on the world and recognizable feelings about searching an unfamiliar place for a way to fit in, about making friends and being accepted. The illustrations by Arevik d’Or make a wonderful contribution to the timeless and positive character of Bahar’s story.

In ‘Bahar on the Moon’, the second volume in the series, Bahar and her friends devise a plan to keep Ruman’s parents’ pizza shop open, now that its future appears threatened by their divorce. The friends visit a museum with their class, where they put on VR glasses that make it seem as if they’re walking on the surface of the moon. It’s impossible to imagine a better place to change the world than far away from the earth.