Bea Reviews The Bus Ride by Marianne Dubuc

Publisher: Kids Can Press
Format Read: eGalley
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Challenges: NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge 
Release Date: March 1, 2015
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Kobo | Barnes & Noble
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Blurb from goodreads:

"This is the first time I'm taking the bus by myself. Mom packed me a snack -- and had me bring my sweater in case I get cold." But Mom likely didn't imagine the adventure her little girl would have as she rides to her grandmother's house in this sweet picture book. While the bus is taking her down the streets, through a forest and into a pitch-black tunnel, the little girl encounters an assortment of animal characters who enliven her journey, including a goat who offers her a flower from a bouquet, a wolf child with whom she happily shares her cookies and a fox who attempts to pickpocket a bear. Adding to the fun are lots of running visual gags, such as the changing headlines on the newspaper that hides one passenger's face, a sleeping sloth who mysteriously appears in different seats without ever having woken up and a nervous-looking turtle whose head and arms pop in and out of its shell. The interior of the bus covers each two-page spread, and award-winning author-illustrator Marianne Dubuc uses subtle colors and tiny details to draw in youngsters to the activity happening there. This book offers a potentially multilayered classroom reading experience: there is the terrific main story of the girl's trip, but there are also any number of mini stories playing out at the same time with each of the other characters. It would work beautifully as a jumping-off point for children to do some imaginary storytelling of their own.

Bea's Thoughts:

A sweet and happy story about a little girl going on a trip by herlesf, and an adventure!, to see her grandmother. Traveling by herself on a bus she encounters wolves, hedgehogs (I think that's what they are), a ginormous bear, a sleepy sloth, a pick pocket and others. The artwork is soft colors and the pages are full of details such as a turtle that pulls its head inside its shell when it gets scared, a young hedgehog playing with a ball of yarn that a cat is knitting with, etc. Even if the story doesn't interest your child, the different and ever-changing details will be fun. Each page offers something new and interesting to look at it and you can make a game out of comparing pages to see what's changed.

There's no drama, no muss, no fuss, just a friendly girl enjoying her bus ride to her grandmother's house, observing the world around her and making plans to play with her new friend the wolf cub.