I remember play buses from my childhood so I’ve always had a soft spot for the play bus book series (Jay-Jay and his friends) by Sue Wickstead and have featured several of them over the years.

Sue is in my local writing group and is a primary school teacher as well as an author. Her latest book, Daisy Daydream Bus Rhymes and Jokes, is slightly different as although it refers to the real Daisy Daydream bus JJK 261, it is a collection (obviously, given the title) of bus themed rhymes and jokes rather than a story. I was pleased to see a page on the history still included though.

Sue’s writing style is usually more text dense than a traditional picture book, making them read aloud stories rather than independent reads, but given this is in short snippets so a young bus fan can dip into it themselves. As for the jokes – well, I particularly loved this one

What is red, runs on wheels, and eats grass?
A bus – I lied about the grass!

Blurb

Some well known nursery rhymes, rewritten, with a bus twist. Come and sing along and share a bus joke too. A special collection for Daisy Daydream

Author Bio

Sue Wickstead lives in West Sussex, UK and writes children’s picture story books. 

Her stories relate to both her experiences as a teacher as well as her play-work adventures with a bus.

The Playbus was a real double-decker bus full of toys, arts and crafts, as well as a lot of fun to play on. Sue wrote a photographic social history book about the project which led to her story telling and her writing. All of Sue’s books do have a bus included in them somewhere. Daisy Daydream was the bus that Sue painted and the start of her Playbus and writing journey. 

When not writing Sue builds models with Lego (especially for her grandson), she loves spending quality time with her young grandson and enjoys creating models to share with him on his visits. 

Her grandson features in the book ‘Barty Barton; the bear that was loved too much’ which was published in 2020. He also helps his Nanny Sue to sing along with a few of the rhymes sue has written.

Many of Sue’s books have been entered and shortlisted in ‘The Wishing Shelf Book Awards’, the book ‘A Spooky Tale’ was a silver medal winner in 2019. The story was written with her class in school.