By Loren Long
(Roaring Brook Press, 2024)
This story began from a curious mind. As author-illustrator Loren Long explains at the end of the book, an old yellow school bus “surrounded by goats” rests in a field he passes by while on his regular jogs. How did it wind up there? What was its history?
Here’s a window into Long’s imagined chronology of the bus’s roles, its users varying over time:
· Pitter-patter, pitter-patter, giggle, giggle-patter;
· Shuffle-clunk, shuffle-clunk, creak, creak-clunk;
· Rustle-bump, rustle-bump, brrr, brrr-bump;
· Clip-clop, clip-clop, maaah, maaah-clop
· Swish-swoosh, swish-swoosh, glub, glub-swoosh.
I’ll leave you to imagine the bus’s patrons from obvious beginnings. Yes, the goats make an appearance—figure out their representation, above. (Hint: Long imagines something different as the bus’s final resting place.)
The story reminds me of Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, personifying an object and portraying it as finding joy in being of service. Unlike Silverstein’s tree which has a relationship with one boy, Long’s bus operates over time for many.
It’s a simple story though Long offers refreshing surprises in the bus’s journey. Cue warm fuzzies and ample opportunity for discussion with young readers, themselves curious.
As with other books by Loren Long, such as Otis and Toy Boat, the art reflects his distinct style and is extraordinary. Indeed, I would love to see an exhibition of Long’s work, just as I’ve seen exhibitions honoring Eric Carle (at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts), Ezra Jack Keats (at the Skirball in L.A.) and Maurice Sendak (at the Skirball and, currently, at the Denver Art Museum).
What’s unique to the art in this book is that Long first created a 3-D model of the town and valley that would be the setting of the story. This offered a chance to explore shadows and light as well as play with vantage points in showing the bus on various pages. The reader/viewer is truly rewarded by Long’s extra work.
Long’s explanation of media used to create the art in The Yellow Bus is worth reading in the fine print on the end page, both for its specificity and its surprise:
The art for this book was crafted with graphite pencil,
charcoal pencil, and charcoal dust on Epson
Doubleweight Matte paper; it was scratched out with
X-Acto blades and smudged with Q-tips. The colors
were created with acrylic paint, and all of it was
mixed with whatever dust and dog hair may have
been floating around the artist’s studio.
It should be no surprise Long is a precise, detail-oriented artist.
I suspect whoever reads this book will return to it for repeated reads on account of a gentle story but also for frequent browsing, an art show awaiting between the hardcovers.
Enjoy!
