I KNOW A BUS DRIVER

Like others in the series this has the virtues of being easy to read, down to earth and racially integrated, but like too many of its predecessors it is totally without distinction. In a weak play for human interest Ms. Gray has Bobby meet his bus driver neighbor when he leaves a turtle on the bus; there follows a wholly unpersonalized tour when Bobby accompanies Mr. Blake on his Saturday morning route and learns about dispatchers and schedules, tokens and fare boxes, and the traffic problems that make for ""surprises"" (here an overturned gas truck causing delay and then a detour). ""The best surprise of all is having a bus driver for a neighbor,"" Bobby announces at the end, but there is neither surprise nor substance in the pedestrian text and pictures.