Bunnies on the Bus

May 1, 2020
Mayhem ensues when bunnies board the bus. Don't be fooled by the tranquil-seeming town in the opening scene; look closely and you'll spy bunny ears. And on the title and copyright spread that follows, those bunnies sneakily take over the city bus behind the back of the regular driver, an elephant. The bunny behind the wheel seems to take the "Am I driving well?" sign on the rear of the bus as a personal challenge. (The answer is no, as many would-be bus riders and pedestrians can attest.) Repetitive phrasing in the rhyming verses adds to the frenzied atmosphere that quickly ensues, the author's British origins evident in some of the word choices: "Pandas at the crossing! / Pandas at the crossing! / Their shopping jumping in the air, / spinning and a-tossing." (This likely also accounts for the rhyming of "again" with "train.") But Mantle's busy and very funny illustrations will ease any potential confusion among American readers. Children can follow a pig letter carrier, a parent and child sheep going about town, a bear in a bow tie gathering gifts for and then dining with a sweetheart, a pair of masked red-squirrel bandits who are making their getaway after robbing a bank, and many other characters, not to mention the antics of those bunnies on the bus. The ending hints at a possible sequel as the bunnies disembark in favor of a train. The illustrations alone will keep readers occupied for hours. (Picture book. 3-8)

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April 27, 2020
“Bunnies on the bus!/ Bunnies on the bus!/ No wonder there’s a fuss/ about the bunnies on the bus!” That’s Ardagh’s (High in the Clouds) vividly silly refrain, and he and Mantle (Follow the Track All the Way Back) enthusiastically engage with it on every page. Sunny Town seems like an orderly burg—even the bugs dutifully use the crosswalk. But when one of Sunny Town’s buses ends up full of rabbits, it turns into a speeding, careening public menace, with the bunny driver “swerving ’round the corners” while the town’s other denizens react from sidewalks and bus stops with a range of expressions. The only nonbunny passenger is a large newspaper-reading sheepdog in a tiny bowler hat, who seems unbothered by it all—until, that is, the bunnies break the ultimate bus law: no playing in the aisles. Even though the bunnies misbehave in every imaginable way—including eating ice cream on the bus’s fender—they’re unfailingly wide-eyed, creating an amusing tension between the gleeful bus-riding rabbits and would-be riders outside. Digitized colored pencil pictures, rendered in deep pastels, bring to mind a pepped-up vintage Little Golden Book. Keen-eyed readers will spot other madcap moments, including a police chase, occurring alongside the rabbits’ romp. Ages 3–7.