WHO IS DRIVING YOUR BUS?

An imaginative kid learns about managing his emotions in Sonnenberg’s picture book.

Niko, who has light-colored skin and a mop of short black hair, has an imaginary new job as a bus attendant. After breakfast, Niko grabs his fake mustache from under his bed, next to a yellow toy school bus. When Niko gets to class, he sits beside his best friend, Nina, who has brown skin with her hair in two curly brown buns. Niko pretends he is a bus; his first passengers are Silly, Happy, and Impulsive. Happy and Silly board first; then Niko puts Impulsive in the driver’s seat, thinking, “Why not?” While Impulsive drives the bus, Niko notices his teacher’s pink dress and blurts out: “Ms. Moreno!! Your dress makes you look like the big, fat pink frosted donut with blue sprinkles that Dad bought me from the gas station this morning!” Niko’s next passengers are Guilt and Tummy Troubles. Rook’s clever illustrations unravel the metaphor of the bus passengers, each of whom is a uniquely colored little version of Niko. The pictures use luminous, highly pigmented colors for the characters and fun, comic-style accents against mostly grayscale and muted backgrounds. The exciting third-person narration brings Niko’s imagined world to life and drives the plot. At the end of the book, a couple of pointed questions for reflection invite the reader to look deeper into the emotions that arise throughout the story.

A deeply engaging examination of emotions and how they work, made fun and funny.