When I started doing storytime on Thursday mornings at Big Hill Books in Minneapolis, I unexpectedly had only babies — most between six and nine months — who came. I’ve added some ukelele, finger puppets, kid percussion instruments, and other sorts of interesting things I can pull out of my bag to re-engage everyone when attentions wander.
Those babies are turning two, one after the other, this spring and it is all kinds of delight to see them once a week and hear the new words and watch the new skills. They are sponges, soaking up words and concepts. We’ve been able to do some longer books, also some books where the story is told more in the pictures than in the words — they can help tell it now.
When Loren Long’s book The Yellow Bus came out, I knew right away that the kids would love it. I was in love with Long’s process as he wrote the book, which you can read about in this New York Times article. (There are also pictures in the back of the book itself.) He built a three-dimensional model of the town and valley in which the story takes place, working out the particulars of plot and the world of the yellow bus by sketching from that extraordinarily detailed town made of cardboard, scraps, toothpicks, and paints and markers.
As I worked, I was struck by the fact that this story is about an object universally and instantly recognized as yellow. It was the yellow that I wanted to shine through the artwork, no matter where the bus was in her journey. (Loren Long in The Yellow Bus backmatter.)
Mr. Long succeeded — most of the book is drawn on the grey scale — save the yellow bus. Each page has that sunny yellow vehicle carrying or sheltering people and animals. Some pages have a closeup of the yellow bus, and some you have to spot it amongst the buildings and landscapes — a yellow smudge driving through the grey.
There is a boy in my storytime who is learning English alongside at least one, if not more, languages. He is a serious two-year-old. He never talks. He does not sing along. He is loathe to “participate” in any way — like pointing to something in the book we’re reading. You can tell he’s just sort of above it all. Like he could have written a better book. He sits perfectly still and studies the books as I read. No reactions, just quiet study. When another toddler in the group is up to shenanigans, he looks at them with a cold stare that usually stops the shenanigans. Not once had I heard him speak.
Until I brought out The Yellow Bus. That child stood from his mother’s lap, pointed and exclaimed with absolute delight, “Bus! Yellow bus! BUS!” Huge smile on his face. I was so startled I nearly dropped the book. I asked if he knew the yellow bus — if he had the book at home. He shook his head no, gave me another smile, and said with the most perfect diction, “Please read us The Yellow Bus.”
Which we did. And everyone loved it, but especially this kiddo. It’s like the book unlocked something in him — he speaks about the book — and others, as well — in complete sentences and with pretty amazing literary insight. A couple of weeks ago we had a whole conversation (in English) about the Mars rover. He knows everything about it — how it works and what it is discovering. He knows a lot about buses, as well. Other vehicles, too, but the yellow bus seems to be his very favorite.
I’m a fan of Loren Long’s books — his art and his writing. Simple stories with unexpected depth. He often uses color in ways that help kids know what’s going on. He writes and illustrates cozy and beautiful books. I have high hopes that we will see other adventures of the Yellow Bus — much like how Long’s Otis the Tractor expanded into several books. The theme of this first one is joy. I wonder what other adventures and joys the Yellow Bus might have…