Granny Franny's Big Red Bus - Children's Book Review

[AD/Gifted - We received a copy of this book for the purpose of this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

Reading is a very important part of my life and I knew it was something that I wanted my children to love. C and E will be 8 and 6 this month and they have never once gone to bed without a bedtime story. Their bedroom looks like a library and they love having a huge selection to choose from at bedtime.

We were very kindly sent a copy of Granny Franny's Big Red Bus by Sonia Beldom and they couldn't wait to read it.

Blurb:

"Granny Franny is always surprising her grandchildren, Ronni and Jax with sensational stories and surprise days out. One day, she decides to do something super special for their birthday. She buys a big red bus to take them on a magical mystery tour of London; what she's forgotten is that she can't actually drive a bus. Then she meets Thinkerbell, the talking bus bell and everything changes. Then it starts to rain...a lot.

Review:

Granny Franny loves her grandchildren Ronni and Jax and wants to do a fun day Sunday for their birthday. She decides to buy a beautiful, shiny red double decker bus for a London adventure but then realises that she doesn't actually know how to drive it!

Enter Thinkerbell, a personified bell that helps Granny Franny get to grips with how to drive this new bus. Obviously, the path doesn't run smoothly and we get into a bit of a pickle.

Aimed at children aged around 3-8, both my children enjoyed this book. The rhymes made it interesting and the story was engaging and kept their interest. E loved joining in with some of the text such as the "DING DING DING" of the bell. The illustrations, drawn by Beldom too, made it that little bit more special. 

I love a book that draws on the author's experience because it makes it seem more real. Sonia Beldom made her lifelong dream come true by saving up for lessons and becoming a bus driver in 2018.

Granny Franny's Big Red Bus was actually written during the COVID-19 pandemic and sales are helping to raise fun for bus-related charities while all private hire vehicles were off the road.

You can purchase your own digital or hard copy from Amazon.