Bunnies on the Bus

“Bunnies on the bus!/ Bunnies on the bus!/ No wonder there’s a fuss/ about the bunnies on the bus!” That’s Ardagh’s (High in the Clouds) vividly silly refrain, and he and Mantle (Follow the Track All the Way Back) enthusiastically engage with it on every page. Sunny Town seems like an orderly burg—even the bugs dutifully use the crosswalk. But when one of Sunny Town’s buses ends up full of rabbits, it turns into a speeding, careening public menace, with the bunny driver “swerving ’round the corners” while the town’s other denizens react from sidewalks and bus stops with a range of expressions. The only nonbunny passenger is a large newspaper-reading sheepdog in a tiny bowler hat, who seems unbothered by it all—until, that is, the bunnies break the ultimate bus law: no playing in the aisles. Even though the bunnies misbehave in every imaginable way—including eating ice cream on the bus’s fender—they’re unfailingly wide-eyed, creating an amusing tension between the gleeful bus-riding rabbits and would-be riders outside. Digitized colored pencil pictures, rendered in deep pastels, bring to mind a pepped-up vintage Little Golden Book. Keen-eyed readers will spot other madcap moments, including a police chase, occurring alongside the rabbits’ romp. Ages 3–7. [em](Aug.) [/em]