Bus Route to Boston
Kindergarten-Grade 3-Cocca-Leffler re-creates a favorite memory from her childhood-going to Boston on Saturdays to shop with her mother and younger sister. She and her sibling know all of the bus drivers, and one in particular, Bill, is their favorite. He gives them free rides down the block, takes an interest in their ball games, and even helps them off the bus with their packages after a day of shopping. They return the favor by always remembering to save him a cannoli, fresh from the bakery. Text and illustrations combine to paint a vivid picture of Boston during a more leisurely decade, and of the North Side, an Italian enclave of small stores where even today shopkeepers and customers know one another by name. The language is simple and unadorned, as befits the child narrator. The artist's double-page spreads, rendered in acrylic, are large enough for group sharing. They contain such touches of humor as a large woman trying to stuff herself into a dress at Filene's Basement, the siblings trying on oversized hats, and oranges tumbling from a stand at the outdoor vegetable market. The girls and their mother eat ice cream at Bailey's on chairs with metal heart-shaped backs. Cars with fishtail fins roll down the street while laundry hangs overhead, suspended from one window to another. A charming slice of life in a time past.Marianne Saccardi, Norwalk Community College, CTCopyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.