Are We There, Yeti?

School bus drivers occupy a special place in children’s imaginations, so debut author-artist Anstee is on to something by transforming this authority figure into a hulking mythical beast whose name happens to sound a lot like part of a classic kid whine. Yeti takes his charges and their teacher on an extensive road trip (the landscape changes from small town to shoreline to Alpine, prompting plenty of yeti-themed punning on the theme of “Are we there yet?”) to his mountaintop habitat. From there, however, Anstee has trouble delivering on her big idea. The human children meet Yeti kids, they share some conventional wintertime fun and games, and promise to get together again. Even if the storytelling sags a bit, Anstee’s drawings show a lot of promise: rendered in a sunny palette, her artwork, a mix of digital media and painting, has the breezy look of early 1960s animation. Anstee’s bucktoothed, oversize hero and round-headed, eager-eyed children have big hearts and high spirits, and she includes just enough goofy incidental details to invite young eyes to linger. Ages 4–8. Agent: Kelly Sonnack, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. (July)