Susanna Leonard Hill has a feature on her blog called Perfect Picture Book Friday . It is a list of “perfect” picture books recommended by all sorts of people. I chose this book because of its unusual illustrations and great imagination story.
Naughty Bus
By Jan and Jerry Oke
46 pages – Ages 3+
Published by Little Knowall Publishing March 10, 2005
Theme/Topic – Using Your Imagination to Play
Opening and Synopsis – “This is for you. I hope you’re a good driver.”
When a little boy gets a toy double-decker bus as a gift, he uses his imagination to make the bus come to life. The little bus gets into all sorts of trouble -driving over the table, crashing through breakfast and falling in a lake. The toy bus is certainly naughty!
Why I liked this book – I first read about “Naughty Bus” on the “One Book On The Shelf” blog (see the original post HERE) . The blog post was an interview of the owner an independent bookstore in England called Victoria Park Books (visit their webite HERE). The store owner said that “Naughty Bus” was one of the store’s bestseller. I figured if it’s a bestseller in England, why not try it out (you can buy the book through Amazon sellers)? I am glad I did because I really enjoyed it! First of all, the illustrations are real photos and they are awesome! The photos were really funny and really amazing because of the action shots. The words are large print and should be a great read aloud and good for beginning readers. The fonts and the lay-out of the words made the book even more interesting! For an example look down below! 
See how the words get all bumpy when the bus is on a rough road?
This is one of my favorite illustrations in the book
Activities and Resources – I really like how the book encourages kids to use their imagination. Parents can have their kids take any ordinary object (not necessarily a toy), for example a spoon, and pretend it’s something else. Perhaps that spoon could be a magic fairy wand or a sleek, silver yacht. Parents could let their kids take pictures (or if the kids are too young the parents could take the pictures) of their favorite toy and use their imagination to make up stories about it. As an example, I did a photo of Godzilla “editing” my blog. Want to see? Check this out!
I was happy to learn that Jan Oke wrote another book called “Major Glad, Major Dizzy.” Ian Nolan did the photography for this book because sadly, Mr. 
Oke who created the awesome pictures in “Naughty Bus”, passed away. I already asked my mom to order me “Major Glad, Major Dizzy”. The description of the book said that the book will “entertainingly introduce the topic of recent British history.” To learn more about “Naughty Bus” and Ms. Oke’s other books, please visit the Little Knowall website HERE.
To find more Perfect Picture Books please visit Susanna Hill’s blog HERE!
) and post the winner on December 30th!
Recent Comments