cover image The Bus Driver

The Bus Driver

Todd H. Doodler. Random/Corey, $7.99 (22p) ISBN 978-0-307-97907-0

Doodler, the pen name for artist Todd Harris Goldman, counts from one to 10 and back again, as a bus fills up with passengers and then drops them off at their destinations. The characters’ arrivals and departures unfold in lively rhymes, though the meter is all over the place (“Around the corner, three fireman were out of luck,/ stranded with a broken truck./ He picked up four boys covered in dirt,/ then five basketball players wearing their team shirt”). The crisp, brightly colored digital cartoons are attention-getting, and the bus shape of the book, with wheels protruding from the bottom edge, is a nice touch. Up to age 4. (Jan.)