Somebody on This Bus Is Going to Be Famous by J. B. Cheaney (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Somebody on This Bus Is Going to Be Famous by J. B. Cheaney
As the title promises, someone on this bus of middle-schoolers will hit the big time one day. As readers learn more about the nine students central to the story—from the bully to the pushover to the brainiac—a mystery threads itself through the separate narratives devoted to them and their often complicated lives. Only by working together can they figure out why their driver, Mrs. B., makes a stop one morning where no one seems to be waiting; the origin of unsigned, personalized notes some of them receive; and the reason the community ran a certain young man out of town decades prior—and why he seems to have returned. The benign but sufficiently interesting mystery plays second fiddle to author Cheaney’s detailed [End Page 92] portrayals of her diverse cast of characters; sympathetic to the complex home and inner lives of children, she renders them with realism, respect, and even judicious tenderness. Still, this story suffers under from a slow build-up and considerable length, which makes the pace often ponderous and undermines the reward of intimacy with the characters. While a nail-biting climax gets the pages turning, it will only pay off for those readers willing and able to stay with the book that long. The result feels somewhat more like a novel for adults than for kids, but readers may appreciate its thoughtfulness and keen observations.
