by Melanie Moore (Author) Mike Helm (Illustrator)
Based on the true story of the Book Bus in Cincinnati, this picture book follows a vintage VW pickup truck that embarks on a new adventure to share the joy of reading.
Tilly the truck loves two things--helping out on the farm and listening to the stories read to her by the little girl who lives in the farmhouse.
As time passes, things change on the farm, and life gets very quiet for Tilly. Missing the feeling of being useful and the sounds of stories being read, Tilly has an idea to share books with the community by becoming the Book Bus.
Children gleefully gathered around the little truck when they saw all of the books she had to give. One by one, Tilly handed each of them a special story of their very own.
But when Tilly's passion for sharing books is jeopardized, will the community come forward to help her out?
Award-winning writer Brian Wray teams up with Book Bus founder Melanie Moore to tell the story of what can happen when a community pulls together to share the gift of books. Mike Helm's gorgeous and detailed watercolor-and-pencil illustrations will capture the imagination of young readers and book lovers of all ages.
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Books provide an old truck with a new sense of purpose in Moore and Wray's community story, which, per an end note, takes inspiration from Moore's mobile bookstore. After a day of usefully hauling cherries, Tilly, a happy-go-lucky green farm truck, looks forward to evenings spent listening to the girl who inhabits the farmhouse read aloud: "Tilly loved drifting off to sleep, imagining marvelous mermaids, searching scientists, or pirouetting panda ballerinas." After the child grows up and larger trucks arrive at the farm, Tilly wonders whether her helpful days are done. But when the vehicle ventures solo into town to distribute the child's old books, the result gives the truck a second life. While storybook-sounding text offers thoughtful internality to the book's vehicle protagonist, Helm's carefully shaded rural landscapes play things straight, depicting an apparently self-driving VW pickup without anthropomorphized elements. Human characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4-8. (Feb.)
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