THE YELLOW BUS: Get On Board Life!

 

ROARING BOOK PRESS, 2024

From the yolk of an egg to the sun overhead, YELLOW is the color of LIFE. Loren Long's recent release, THE YELLOW BUS, is a triumph, both in writing and in illustration. 

The first time I saw the cover, I was hooked. Soon after, I read an interview in which Long shared backstory, one that he presents in a double spread of touching text and photos at the end of this picture book. It recounts his reflections and internal queries about a goat-occupied, abandoned yellow school bus, noticed on his daily runs. Those back pages include photos and discussion of his illustration process for this work, involving model-construction, rescued toys, and explorations with light and shadow. The resulting colors, shadows, perspectives, and angles evoke mood, changes over time, and especially the relationships between/among the people/characters, community members, settings, and THE YELLOW BUS.

I was enamored with all of the above, as well as the emotional journey of this very special central character. THE YELLOW BUS achieves a balance between its natural, purpose-produced nature and the undeniable heart and self-awareness at its core. Several reviews noted that this story evokes qualities from the beloved THE LITTLE HOUSE by Virginia Lee Burton, 1943 Caldecott Award winner. Personification and anthropomorphizing do not really describe either of these central characters, a little house and a little yellow bus. In both, it is the living beings who account for movement and changes of circumstances, but both "objects" are clearly self-aware of their relationships to those who surround them and inhabit them, with a capacity for joy in contributing to those lives, if given a chance. 

In his modern, mobile treatment, Long's imagined life story for THE YELLOW BUS, uses color (or lack of it) to clarify when and how that awareness occurs. In an expansive opening double spread, readers view a complex valley scene with intriguing details that echo throughout the story. That scene (worth close exploration) is in gray tones, but includes one spot of color, a tiny yellow bus, busily traveling its route. In following pages, with angles that always seem perfectly chosen from street level to sky-views, across seasons and time, the little bus senses and appreciates life when beings are on board. Readers know this from superb, minimal text (more about that in a minute), but mostly from the transformation of color. The loving families, community members, and surrounding scenes remain in grey tones, as do the beings, until they physically contact the bus, at which time they are shown in "living color". Another illustration technique that sustains the focus on our lead characters is the facial angles of those on board. We see enough of their features to lend personality and life to each of them, but their quarter-profiles, obscured-by-objects positions keep us focused on the most important player, THE YELLOW BUS. 

Long also wrote the text, providing purpose to the bus (taking them from one important place... to another). The varying casts of characters who share those journeys produce multi-sensory, ear-pleasing lyrical lines of text, from pitter-patter to shuffle-clunk, to rustle-bump-brrr, and more. These rhythms of occupancy form the heartbeat of the bus, and their absences indicate when the bus may no longer have a purpose. At that tender moment, readers will welcome the fact that several pages remain. I won't spoil an inspired and satisfying surprise conclusion. Please take time, in those final pages, to dwell on the visuals and explore what might be coming. And when the end is revealed, savor the gratifying shift in use of colors throughout the scene. 

Reflections on service, life, and connection couldn't be more dramatically and sensitively portrayed than on the wide double spread viewing a sunset skyline from inside the abandoned bus. The color choice, once again, suggests that life may have left THE YELLOW BUS behind. This is a fantastic book for young audiences (target age, Pre-K-2nd) but it's strong evidence that  picture books can offer life reflections for any age. Living in and appreciating each moment, valuing service, re-purposing ourselves when something beloved has been lost, and acceptance of the present  moment are values for any age. For every age. Achieving those attitudes and commitments requires resuming our own journeys again, and again. Taking us from one important place in life... to new important places.