Ride the Bus with Books and Stories
The Saturday Morning Lego Club at our local library is riding the bus, with bus books for kids and other fun bus activities. Hop on with us!
There are some wonderful bus books for kids. Have you and your child shared, “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” by Mo Willems? This silly story is loved by kids who also often sit in the driver’s seat of any vehicle and pretend to drive. Adults think the pigeon sounds exactly like kids who are whining, pleading, negotiating and using other strategies to get their way. In any case, the pictures show the end of the story and kids figure it out pretty quickly to get the joke.
In “The Bus Ride,” by Marianne Dubuc, a little girl is taking the bus by herself to grandmother’s house. Unfortunately, not that many kids will be able to have the same experience of going alone but the bus is a fact of life for many of us. The bus ride turns into quite an adventure. Do you and your child ever take the bus? As you travel along, imagine some adventures of your own.
Or how about a bus ride on a dinosaur, like “Gus, The Dinosaur Bus,” by Julia Liu. With a bus as big as the dinosaur, there are some pretty big issues, but what a wonderful solution in this story.
The Magic School Bus is always going on wild adventures and taking Miss Frizzle and her class. They explore from outer space to inside bodies, encounter tiny bats and enormous dinosaurs, travel under the ocean and deep in the jungle. Kids can hitch a ride anytime and anywhere. Many of these books are available as TV shows and videos as well, but they don’t come with the advantage of a lap and somebody who can listen to questions. Especially questions that drive adults batty.
Another famous bus is #2857. The book, “Rosa’s Bus: The Ride to Civil Rights” by Jo S. Kittinger is more appropriate for older kids. A defining moment in our history, recent events are showing that we need to connect with each other and evaluate our own sense of fairness. A story in a book can make it easier to have discussions with children.
Stay tuned for some more fun bus activities for kids. Are there some other books and stories about buses your child likes?
One way to get in the spirit of the Games is to share children’s books about the Olympics and win a medal for reading-well, listening to adults read.
G is for Gold Medal: An Olympics Alphabet has 2 sections of text for each letter. One part is shorter, rhyming text for younger listeners and the other part is more detailed paragraphs for more advanced readers. There’s lots of information in the text and in the illustrations.
Olympig by Victoria Jamieson is quite unexpected. Boomer, the pig, enters many of the events at the Olympics. His performance doesn’t match his expectations and he keeps losing. He keeps trying though. After several losses, his discouragement mounts and he quits in frustration. His mother isn’t embarrassed; she’s proud of him for trying. Boomer tries again and this time has a much different reaction even if it’s the same result.
One of the children’s books about the Olympics with lots of answers and pictures is no longer in print but you might be able to find it at the library. B.G. Hennessy uses simple text in most of the book, Olympics, such as “Runners are running. Jumpers are jumping. Throwers are throwing. Swimmers are swimming laps.” Unfortunately, it’s not an easy book to find.
There are wonderful picture books about space with amazing photographs and illustrations. National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Space by Catherine Hughes and David Aguilar is one of these. It answers basic questions kids have about space so we don’t need to have all the answers. The book is divided into chapters that are relevant for kids. The first one is Looking Up From Earth. The next is Earth’s Neighborhood, followed by Earth’s Other Neighbors and Far, Far Away. The last section is on Exploring Space. Who knows what discoveries will happen in our children’s lifetime? The page on gravity invites kids to jump 5 times in a row to show gravity works every time.
Not written by Dr Seuss himself, There’s No Place Like Space by Tish Rabe and Aristides Ruiz, features the Cat in the Hat. Familiar rhyming text takes kids “off to have fun. We’ll visit the planets, the stars, and the sun!” Wonder if the Cat in the Hat has packed any Green Eggs and Ham in case he gets hungry in space?
Joey and Jet in Space, text and pictures by James Yang, is a simple story with only a few words but there’s lots to explore. Almost like a Richard Scary book, rockets and spaceships come in a tremendous variety of shapes and colors. Joey not only goes on a journey to space, he’s on the lookout for his pet. Of course, kids would take along their pet.
Sam Garton’s Otter character also takes along her pet, Teddy, in Otter In Space. Otter’s trip starts out with a visit to a museum where she sees “old paintings, made before crayons were invented.” But her discoveries do not end there. Just like parents, Otter Keeper won’t buy her everything she wants in the gift shop. With some imagination and creativity, she solves her quest to travel to outer space.
Of course, any pile of children’s space books needs one for blasting off. On the Launch Pad: A Counting Book about Rockets, by Michael Dahl does just that. After hearing it a few times, kids will be able to ‘read’ this by themselves.