Next Stop!

Anne Hutchings, a former elementary-school teacher-librarian with the
Durham Board of Education, is an educational consultant.

On Saturday Claire rides the bus, sitting right up front. As the bus
driver announces the streets, Claire chimes in with points of interest
at each stop: Moss Street, Museum, Green Lane, Shopping Mall. At the
second-last stop, Robin Way, Claire says, “College,” and when the
bus driver asks, “And?,” Claire just laughs. Nobody gets off, but a
very special passenger gets on. The smiling woman leans over and kisses
Claire, and then leans over and kisses the bus driver, much to the
delight of the other occupants of the bus. At the last stop, the driver
calls out “Peter Gardens,” and Claire responds, “Home!” “Ding,
ding” goes the bell, and Claire and her mom get off.

Ruth Ohi’s rich, colorful illustrations complement the text
perfectly, providing additional details and offering an often humorous
glimpse of a city afternoon. Young children will read this book over and
over again, delighting in the “surprise” ending and loving the
repetition, joining in the refrains. They will pore over the
illustrations, matching the verbal descriptions of the passengers with
their pictures and noting the added details provided by Ohi (for
example, the lady with many bags spills the contents of the bags,
including a puppy, all over the bus). They may speculate on where the
passengers are going or where they have been. The possibilities are
endless. Careful listeners may wonder why a “dog with a man” instead
of a “man with a dog” got on the bus, and then discover that it is a
Seeing-Eye dog leading a man who is blind.

A good picture book is a perfect union of text and illustration. Words
cannot stand on their own—without the pictures, the meaning will be
unclear. Pictures not only supplement, but clarify and/or take the place
of words. In Next Stop! Sarah Ellis and Ruth Ohi have created an
outstanding example of that all-too-rare entity, a true picture book.
Highly recommended.