I haven’t been feeling well this week and so when a prize copy of children’s book Daisy Daydream Bus Rhymes and Jokes arrived yesterday from the author Sue Wickstead I thought I’d read it straight away to cheer myself up! My enormous thanks to Sue and to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for sending me a copy.

Daisy Daydream Bus Rhymes and Jokes is available for purchase here.

Daisy Daydream Bus Rhymes and Jokes

A book of poetry and rhymes with a bus twist. Together with a few tickets full of jokes to capture the imagination of young readers and get them to giggle along on the bus journey. Daisy Daydream the nursery Rhyme bus now has a few nursery rhymes of her own.

My Review of Daisy Daydream Bus Rhymes and Jokes

Daisy Daydream Bus Rhymes and Jokes is a little cracker of a children’s book.

I thoroughly enjoyed the rhymes and jokes presented for young children here. There’s a wealth of fun to be had, especially through the jokes presented in the form of bus tickets which is a brilliant way to feature them. Children will love retelling these to their friends and families.

The rhymes, poems and songs are delightful and offer much more than they first appear. They are terrific fun in themselves, but as many are based on well-known songs and nursery rhymes too, they afford the opportunity to explore the heritage of such language and to provide examples of how to play with and enjoy language. I’d love to think of children writing and sharing their own poems and rhymes and making up their own puns and jokes as a result of reading Daisy Daydream Bus Rhymes and Jokes.

The illustrations are just wonderful and complement the words perfectly. Daisy Daydream Bus Rhymes and Jokes is a smasher of a book. I loved it and I know the small person I’m going to be sharing it with will love it too.

About Sue Wickstead

Sue Wickstead is a teacher and an author and writes children’s picture books with a bus theme featuring a playbus.

For over 20 years, alongside her teaching career, Sue worked with the charity, The Bewbush Playbus Association; she painted the bus, worked in the groups, helped raise the profile of the project and its work and was part of the committee involved in raising funds to replace it with a newer vehicle.

This led her to write a photographic history book about it. Sue remembers that it really was a fun journey to be involved in. The bus really got into her blood and became a work of the heart. Having written the history book Sue soon found that many children had never been on a bus before, let alone a ‘Playbus’ and they wanted to know more. She began telling them stories about the bus and then decided to write a fictional tale. The real number plate for the bus was JJK261 and this gave him Jay-Jay the supersonic Bus his name. Jay-Jay the Supersonic Bus, came out in print in 2014. It is the story behind the original project and is his journey from a scrap-yard to being changed into a playbus for children to play in. 

This story has now been followed more picture books about buses. Daisy Daydream is the bus Sue painted. A Spooky Tale and The Christmas Play Rehearsal do indeed have a bus connection as well as links to Sue’s teaching journey. Sue undertakes events and author bookings and loves to share her stories, she is also ‘a patron of reading’.

You can follow Sue on Twitter @JayJayBus for more information, or visit Sue’s website. You’ll also find Sue on Facebook.