Bunnies on the Bus

by Philip Ardagh, Ben Mantle (Illustrator)

Overview

“Brimming with action, colorful details, and rambunctious fun. This rollicking picture book is best read aloud. . . . It's a cautionary tale: if bunnies board your bus, expect pandemonium.” —Booklist

Bunnies on the bus!
Bunnies on the bus!
No wonder there’s a fuss
about the bunnies on the bus!

There are bunnies on the bus, and they’re causing mayhem in Sunny Town! Watch as they whiz past the bus stop, fly by the swings, and zoom over the crosswalk—these bunnies aren’t stopping for anyone. They finally reach the station, but where are they hopping off to now? Uh-oh . . . Acclaimed author Philip Ardagh’s rhyming, high-energy text and “Bunnies on the bus!” refrain is ideal for library or classroom read-alouds, and Ben Mantle’s colorful illustrations are chock-full of zany details perfect for repeat reads.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536240832
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	12/10/2024
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	7.06(w) x 6.31(h) x 0.00(d)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

Philip Ardagh is a prolific writer who has been published in forty languages. His titles include the best-selling Eddie Dickens trilogy; High in the Clouds, cowritten with Paul McCartney and Geoff Dunbar; and Stinking Rich and Just Plain Stinky, winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. He lives in Kent, England.

Ben Mantle worked in animation, including on Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, before turning to children’s illustration. The illustrator of Follow the Track All the Way Back by Timothy Knapman and many other picture books, he is also the author-illustrator of the Dinostars series as well as The Best Birthday Present Ever! and The Best Christmas Present Ever! Ben Mantle lives in Brighton, England.

Editorial Reviews

Repetitive phrasing in the rhyming verses adds to the frenzied atmosphere that quickly ensues...The illustrations alone will keep readers occupied for hours.
—Kirkus Reviews

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.
—Publishers Weekly

The riotous illustrations—digitally manipulated pencil drawings—are brimming with action, colorful details, and rambunctious fun. This rollicking picture book is best read aloud one-on-one, as kids will want to turn the pages back and forth repeatedly as they search for specific characters in different illustrations. It's a cautionary tale: if bunnies board your bus, expect pandemonium.
—Booklist Online

From the Publisher

04/27/2020

“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. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

2020-04-08
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)

Kirkus Reviews