Little Yellow Bus

Guendelsberger follows Little Red Sleigh with another colorful mode of transportation in this slow-moving tale of a novice school bus. Though Yellow has trained hard for his solo voyage, on the first day of school, “his belly ached./ His wheels felt out of balance.” In a series of earnest exchanges with his reassuring parents, Yellow engages in tactics to put off departure (“My tires feel low on air”), then imagines nightmare scenarios (“The children were going to be late, and it was all his fault!”). Though images of Yellow and his parents—shown with opaque windows that make them appear driverless—lack the visual anthropomorphization that the lengthy text suggests, Mason’s sunny digital artwork depicts a bucolic, apparently suburban neighborhood with lush green trees, ample lawns, and a human cast of varied abilities and skin tones. Ages 4–7. (July)