This story is about a family who live in a bus. The name of the bus is Gracie Joy Rufus Bean. Under her body she has six wheels. To open the door to the bus, you press a button. ‘Tic-shhh!’
One of the children gives us a tour inside. She points out the kitchen, her bunk and introduces us to Blob, the bus spider. When it’s time to head off we learn how everything gets packed away, solar panels get cleaned, we test the horn on the steering wheel, ‘Honk! Honk!’
Off we head with budgies flying over the trees, watch out for that lizard! They stop the bus wherever they like. They pull up by a musical fence and hike to a stream where dragonflies buzz. On a long straight road, they get a flat tyre and a truckie stops to help. They learn about red-tailed black cockatoos from a local ranger. They camp in the bush and gaze at the stars. Everything is quiet except for the frogs. ‘Pobblebonk! Reeeeeeet! Tok! Tok!’
You can’t help but
feel the pleasure this family experience as they are free to experience the world around them, meeting people like them who are also free and travelling for a week,
a month or even a year. With fun illustrations that exude humour, it feels joyful to be with them as they look at the ‘small things, the
big things, and all the things in-between’.
I’m going to buy a bus.
ΗΗΗΗ Thames & Hudson $26.99
Reviewed by Emily Ross
Age Guide 4+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I am an author and illustrator living on Bundjalung Country, Australia.
I have two books published currently; my debut picture book, Seven Seas of Fleas (CBCA Shortlisted for the New Illustrator Award in 2021) and The Kindness Club, written by Kate Bullen-Casanova and illustrated by yours truly.
I attribute my love of creating children’s books to my grandparents who had a huge influence on me when I was young. My grandpa was an engineer and an artist who worked with leather and wood and occasionally dabbled in opal polishing, diamond faceting, and taxidermy and my grandma had an amazing garden and a pet galah, fondly known as Cocky. Their home in Adelaide was filled with heirlooms and trinkets that had traveled with them when they emigrated from Munich in the late ‘50s and as a boy, I loved spending time in that wonderfully strange and eclectic world.
I remember a cuckoo clock hanging in the hall and an unfinished wooden carving of a Clydesdale rearing up on its hind legs. The backyard held myriad wonders as did the garage. I’d squeeze past the old Holden and plonk myself down at grandpa’s drafting table. The small studio invited imagination with its juxtaposition of weird objects. On the back wall, hanging above an assortment of formaldehyde insects was a red taxidermy crab with one huge claw, and in a corner sat a piano accordion and an opal polishing wheel. But the biggest influence was seeing my grandpa’s drawings for his leatherwork, tucked away in the pages of his bird books.
I don’t think they realised it but this is where the seeds of my imagination were planted. Through them I gained a love of making things, exploring, and above all, being curious.
I love creating characters who are curious and question the status quo, and I hope that if you read my books you become curious about your world, too.
I use a mixture of traditional and digital when creating my illustrations. I work initially with graphite pencil, ink or oil paint to create the line work and then I move to the computer to add colour and texture.
I am an author and illustrator living on Bundjalung Country, Australia. 
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