Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! / Caldecott

Plot Summary:

            The driver of the bus has to “leave for a little while” and asks you to keep an eye on things. He also specifically requests that you not let the Pigeon drive the bus. Enter Pigeon. The Pigeon asks repeatedly if he can drive the bus. He lies, begs, bothers, and bargains in order to try to get you to let him drive it. Finally he throws a fit. Eventually, the bus driver comes back and asks if you let the Pigeon drive the bus and thanks you for not doing so. This book does not follow traditional plot lines and is very short.

Personal Reaction:

            This book would be fun to read to a group of very young children. I could see them really getting in to the begging stage and stopping to ask the group “Do you think we should?” This is very funny, and the pigeon is cute, I kinda do want to let him drive it! As far as illustration goes, I failed to be impressed. I understand that the simple pictures are geared toward a very young audience, but I do not approve of the extremely bland color scheme. The pictures in this book definitely don’t detract from the story line, oh wait, what story line? I think we could have used some richer colors and gotten more bang for our buck, in addition I got a very vintage feel from this book, I assumed it was old until I looked up the publication date. I was shocked when I discovered it was printed in 2003! Even the font looks old. I think kids would be less likely to pick it off of the shelf because of that.

Willems, M. (2003). Don't let the pigeon drive the bus. New York: Hyperion Books for Children.