Blog Tour: Jay-Jay And The Carnival By Sue Wickstead

We have previously taken part in blog tours arranged by Rachel’s Random Resources for two of Sue Wickstead’s wonderful children’s books and have thoroughly enjoyed reading and sharing our thoughts. Therefore when we were recently given the opportunity to offer our thoughts on another book in Sue’s Jay-Jay series we didn’t hesitate and today it’s our stop on it’s virtual book tour. I hope you enjoy reading our review, plus be sure to enter the giveaway to win your very own copy of Daisy Daydream!

About The Book

Jay-Jay the Supersonic Bus is a brightly coloured playbus full of toys.He’s always ready for adventure, and after an eventful summer the bus is ready for his journey to the carnival.The children are also excited – but what will happen on the way?

Review

Jay-Jay the Play Bus has had a busy Summer keeping the children entertained with the toys crammed inside his double-decker levels of fun and it’s time to celebrate with a carnival. Everyone is excited to take part in the colourful display, no one more than Jay-Jay, but an unexpected problem threatens to prevent him making it there in time. Worried about letting the children down Jay-Jay and driver Alex hope a mystery passerby could be the answer to their prayers…..

Being the third book from we have read from Sue Wickstead we knew exactly what to expect from this offering and we weren’t disappointed. Like all of her stories this one offers an engaging, easy to follow tale which brings Jay-Jay the Supersonic Bus to life in the imaginations of it’s readers, young and old.

Accompanied by bright, colourful illustrations that perfectly depict the action, this book is perfect for younger children to enjoy both at home or in a school setting. Whilst the story is wonderful I do feel the illustrations add that little something extra and are perfect to help children to follow along when reading together. The language in the book also is reasonably simple with not too many words on each page meaning it would be ideal for early readers too.

Having already enjoyed the first book in the Jay-Jay series it was lovely to see him in action again and I think this story has in fact become our favourite to date thanks to it’s uplifting, fun feel. Fear not though as despite being part of a series this book also works as a standalone story, even giving a little of Jay-Jay’s background story along the way.

As someone who had the childhood experience of visiting a Play Bus I absolutely love that Sue is bringing one to life in the pages of a book, allowing children far and wide to gain a glimpse of the enjoyment they bring. I absolutely loved sharing this story with my son who is a massive bus fan and it’s a book that will certainly be read regularly by us.

About The Author

I am a teacher and an author and have currently written six children’s picture books with a bus theme.

For over 20 years, alongside my teaching career, I worked with a Children’s Charity, The Bewbush Playbus Association, which led me to write a photographic history book about it.I soon found that many children had never been on a bus before, let alone a ‘Playbus’ and they wanted to know more. I decided to write a fictional tale about the bus, his number plate JJK261 gave him his name.

‘Jay-Jay the Supersonic Bus,’ came out in print in 2014. It is the story behind the original bus and is his journey from a scrap-yard to being changed into a playbus for children to play in. From Fact to fiction the bus journey continued. This story has now been followed by five more picture books.

Sue also undertake events and author bookings and loves to share the story. There are also a few more stories in the writing process, with links to real events and buses. The story has been read in many schools in the south-East of England, where I teach as a cover teacher, it is always well received and certainly different

Author Links:  Website | Twitter | Facebook | Bewbush Playbus | Teacher In The Cupboard

Jay-Jay and the Carnival is available to purchase from Amazon*

*This post contains affiliate links

**We were gifted a copy of this book in return for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are our own