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THE KIDS ON THE BUS by Kirsten Hall

THE KIDS ON THE BUS

A Spin-the-Wheel Book of Emotions

by Kirsten Hall ; illustrated by Melissa Crowton

Pub Date: March 17th, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4521-6825-8
Publisher: Chronicle Books

An interactive book on emotions based on the popular children’s song “The Wheels on the Bus.”

In this bus-shaped board book, a group of animals stands in for the “kids” on the bus. As the passengers—including a fox assisting a hippo who sits in a wheelchair—come on board, the lyrics riff off the original: “The feelings on the bus go round and round, all ’round the town.” Then, spread by spread, a pig “waves Hi, hi, hi”; a monkey “says Sit! sit! sit!”; a bird “says Look! look! look!”; a bear “laughs Hee, hee, hee”; and the hippo “yells Whee! whee! whee!” Meanwhile, as the passengers’ antics increase, the face of the driver (a tiger) is slowly changing from placid and smiley to a big open-mouthed yell: “The driver on the bus calls Shh! shh! shh!” As readers sing along with the book they may wonder what makes it a book on emotions. What they have probably overlooked is a small, round die-cut hole that focuses images on a wheel that children can spin to match the actions with an emotion that’s portrayed emoticon-style, with the word underneath. As the matching of emotion to action isn’t always obvious (“hi” goes with “shy,” and “sit” goes with “friendly”), children will only know they got it right if they spin the wheel in exact order with the pages.

There are clearer ways to teach children about feelings than this.

(Board book. 1-4)