A BUS CALLED HEAVEN - Susan Kay Phillips

by Bob Graham

Reviewed by Susan Kay Phillips

Many of us might be curious to jump on a bus with the stated destination “heaven”. We might wonder, what would a bus with a destination “heaven” bring with it?

One morning, young Stella wakes up to find such an bus in front of her house. The abandoned bus has a hand lettered placard taped above the windshield. It says “heaven”.

Immediately things begin to change in the neighborhood. Neighbors who had never talked before stop to talk, wondering about the old bus. How did it get here? Who owns it? And what is to be done with it? Stella changes too. Her thumb comes out of her mouth as she gazes at the bus.

Stella is the first to venture inside. The bus has trash on its floor. Its windows are dirty. It is sad and rundown. Neighbors clamber onto the bus. Stella has seen something, something beyond the trash and the dirt. She turns to her neighbors and says, almost in a whisper, “It could be . . . ours.” “Whose?” they ask. “Ours!” Stella responds. Neighbors take Stella’s lead and join together to move the bus into Stella’s front yard.

The next day, people gather where they never gathered before. Together they begin to clean up the bus. The neighborhood graffiti artists give the bus a sparkling new coat of paint. Stella donates her table soccer with the missing goalie. Luke brings his Supercomx collection. Mrs. Stavros brings a bus-shaped cake. The bus is coming alive.

Street vendors set up on the sidewalk in front of Stella’s house. There is music and dancing and picnicking. Sparrows nest in the bus engine. Life hums around the bus — then the tow truck arrives.

The bus is sticking out over the sidewalk, a violation of local regulations. The distressed neighbors race after their bus as it is towed down the street to the junkyard. Stella is in the lead. The neighbors beg for their bus, but the junkyard boss is firm. ” This one’s for the CRUSHER!”

Stella steps up. “Shall we play table soccer?” she says to the junkyard boss. “…if I win, we’ll keep the bus”. “…why should I play you for the bus?” asks the tough junkyard boss. “Because … there are sparrows nesting in the engine.” Stella replies.

Stella lets the junkyard boss have the only goalie. The ball wizzes from end to end, the handles twirl. Stella scores! She scores again! Stella WINS!! Now Stella shows the junkyard boss, Joe, the little chicks in the bus engine. “Better get your bus to somewhere safe, kid.” Joe advises softly.

Stella and her mom drive the bus as it is pulled back to the vacant lot behind their house. That night, the neighborhood celebrates with music and dancing and probably another bus cake from Mrs. Stavros. In an end note, author Graham comments that the bus has reached a “happy destination “and hopefully will be a neighborhood treasure for years to come, a small but important piece of heaven.

Graham’s ink and watercolor illustrations blend perfectly with the text, conveying the mood of the scene, whether inside the bus or a panorama of the urban neighborhood where Stella lives.

Reviewer’s Note:

Mr. Graham is a celebrated author/illustrator of children’s picture books who has won numerous honors during his career. Here are some of the many awards he has received.

The prestigious Kate Greenway Medal, given by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (British librarians), for the year’s best-illustrated children’s picture book published in Great Britain. Mr. Graham received the award in 2002 for his book, JETHRO BYRDE, FAIRY CHILD.

The Charlotte Zotolow Award, given yearly by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, for the best writing in a picture book published in the United States. Mr. Graham won the Zotolow Award in 2009 for HOW TO HEAL A BROKEN WING. Since 2001, CCBC has included nine of Graham’s books in their year-end list of best books published during the year.

The Children’s Book of the Year Award given by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. Mr. Graham was given this award in 2012 for A BUS CALLED HEAVEN.

I am very fortunate and honored that Mr. Graham agreed to answer my author interview questions. His books have been forever favorites of mine. A BUS CALLED HEAVEN has always been at the top of my list.

Fortunately, Mr. Graham did not answer my questions one by one, but gave a much better and more creative response which included his original sketch of the bus which sparked this story. As you read his response, I think you will feel the atmosphere he creates in his books. Here is his response:

“Some years back now while driving to pick up our grandchildren from school I saw such a bus, waiting forlorn in a back street with destination “Heaven,” on the front.

The scene begged me to go home and enter it in my notebook. I made it a very old bus, the kind I used to go to school in, I further added a small child on tiptoe peering into a window, I don’t know why, but the bus just needed that.

I added some words, then more pictures, I gave it an environment, a community around it, then asked what happened next and an urban drama began to unfold.

Many of my books are made in such a way, I write about what I see around me, I draw pictures, I write words, I put them together not even setting out to write stories – so they surprise me if I see them emerging.

No one will read a story or look at a picture in quite the same way, each will see it from their own experience, be it from many years or few. But picture books can be read together so I like to imagine readers doing just that, maybe on a couch with their feet on a big old sleepy dog.

I am still fortunate to be going to my desk most days, sitting there, maybe drawing a picture, then looking out the window and thinking, “whatever happens next?”

Hoping to do that for a little while yet.”

Bob Graham

As always, thank you for reading my blog newsletter!

.main-header-bar{ visibility: visible!important; } .ast-mobile-header-wrap{ visibility: visible!important; } #masthead{ visibility: visible!important; }