The Bus for Us

The Bus for Us
Written and Illustrated by: Suzanne Bloom
Grades: PK-1
Published by: Boyds Mills Press 2001
Genre: Fiction, Picture Book

Synopsis:  Tess waits with older friend Gus on her first day of school for the bus.  Tess has never seen a bus before and asks if every car that comes by is her bus.  There is a fire truck, ice cream truck, taxi, garbage truck, and many more that go by her.   She learns the names of the vehicles as she awaits her bus.

Theme/Skill: Transportation, School, Vehicles, Alterations in Words, Repetition.

About the Author: Suzanne Bloom 

Suzanne Bloom grew up in Portland, Oregon.  She then moved to New York City at the age of five and lived in a hotel until her family moved to an apartment in Queens.  She went to Cooper Union, an art school for college.   She became an illustrator and a writer.  In many of her works, she uses her children and items that she owns as inspirations for her illustrations and each book grows from a seed of truth.  She has published books including A Family for Jamie, The Bus for Us, My Special Day at Third Street School, and Girls, A-Z.   She has lived in Upstate New York for the past 25 years with her husband, two sons, and their cats and dogs. 

Source used:  www.suzannebloom.com

Pre-Reading Activities:  Have pictures of all different types of transportation all over the classroom for them to look at.  Talk about the transportation that we have and when we use transportation.  Ask questions such as:  What is transportation?  Have you ever been on a bus before?  What makes a bus different from a car?  What color is a bus?  Discuss with the class why we use different types of transportation.   

Post-Reading Activities:  On the board write all the ways that the kids are able to get around from place to place.  Then on a new piece of paper, write what makes a bus special.  Ask and list where the children have taken a bus before.  Then individually have students draw a picture of their favorite form of transportation and write a sentence or word depending on ability to describe it. 

Reflection:  I like the repetition this book uses.  It continually asks "Is this the bus for us, Gus?" as they are waiting for it.  It is a simple way for teachers to talk about transportation and the ways children and their parents get around.  The way it keeps using repetition makes it seem realistic since many children ask questions all the time, especially the same question multiple times.  Children are curious about things and it puts it in a perspective that they can understand.  The use of vibrant colors will attract children to the pictures and help them notice subtle differences in the words.  Even though some may not be able to read, they will notice the differences in pictures as the teacher turns the page.  Since it is repetitive in the book, having signs with jumbled wording will give kids something to look for and notice besides the new form of transportation that comes up.  The book also has unspoken things happen in it that the author does not address.  It has many more children come stand at the bus stop while the book progresses and has things happen to them that become unnoticed.  I do not see the purpose of this other than to have children be able to interpret what is happening without it being said.