From saying goodbye to mom at the bus stop, to saying hello to grandma at the destination bus stop, young Clara narrates her first time riding the bus by herself. The linear size of the book accentuates the inside of the bus, presented in a series of spreads where various anthropomorphized animals (as well as one human reading a newspaper) board and exit the bus. Attention to detail enhances the experience for the reader as animal passengers begin to develop personalities and mini side-narratives emerge.

2016 USBBY Outstanding International Books.

Author/illustrator lives in Montreal, Quebec.

France. Originally published in France as L'autobus by Comme des Géants in 2014. English translation by Yvette Ghione published in the United States by Kids Can Press in 2015.

Clara is taking the bus to her grandma’s house by herself for the first time. To her delight, the other riders - an assortment of animal characters - are friendly, fascinating and funny. There is plenty to see on this adventure, with lots of satisfying details in the illustrations (including the changing headlines on a newspaper, which sometimes hint at what’s to come), proving that it really is the journey that counts.