Cranes on trains? Goats on boats? Dragons on wagons?

After the successes of 'Go, Go Pirate Boat' and 'Car, Car, Truck, Jeep' Katrina Charman and Nick Sharratt have brought us another lovely collaboration, this time re-working the time-honoured classic of 'The Wheels on the Bus.'

As an experienced Early Years Foundation Leader and teacher, singing is most definately in my job description. Nursery rhymes and songs are proven to be crucial in children's communication and language development and rhymes and songs build phonological awareness which form the building blocks of learning to read. There isn't a day goes by where we don't sing in our nursery and reception classes!

Like the original version of the song, 'The Whales on the Bus' give lots of opportunities for actions and sound effects. Children will enjoy roaring, quacking and beeping; zooming, gliding and slipping-and-sliding!

Animal characters are always a hit with very young children as are vehicles and this book combines the two - there are some more unusual forms of transport too, such as skis, gliders and submarines.

I loved that the final page of the book/verse of the song ends at bedtime, with:

'The llamas in pyjamas say nighty-night...snore! snore! snore!"

In an Early Years setting we would most definately bring the song to it's grand finale by singing the final song in a whispered voice whilst getting the children to lie down on the floor pretending to be asleep - of course with added exaggerated snoring noises to make it even more fun! For parents at home, this would also be the perfect end to a bedtime story session.

I am positive 'The Whales on the Bus' will have Early Years practitioners up and down the land making story sacks of finger puppets and small world vehicles to further enhance the book in their provision.

'The Whales on the Bus' would be a fantastic addition to every Early Years Practitioner's library. It's a must for new parents building up their baby and toddler book collection, as it's just this type of title that gets our babies into books. . I am sure it will leave young children shouting "Again! Again!" for years to come.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Children's Books for providing me a digital copy of this book in advance of the publication date.

Such a delightful book. Colourful and eye-catching illustrations and a fresh take on “the wheels on the bus”... This book will keep children entertained for many a bed-time reads.

This is an absolutely wonderful new take on the old favourite The Wheels on the Bus. In this new version you can find bees on skis, a tiger in a glider, ducks on trucks and much more. The illustrations are glorious and very child friendly, full of bright colours and detail. You’ll soon find yourself singing along to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus but with a new twist on the old familiar which is like a breath of fresh air!

Publication date is 6th August 2020 and I highly recommend a copy for anyone with little ones who adore singing along to stories!

My thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for the ARC in return for an unbiased review.

I read this book with my daughter who is a big fan of wheels on the bus song so this was immediately a big hit - in fact it was such a big hit we read it four times in succession!

The book was great, fun images and she could really get involved - it is 5 stars from me for this one - very highly recommended!!

We've had a copy of Car, Car, Truck, Jeep since my son was little and now at 15 months it's a book he regularly picks up and brings over to me to sing. I was so excited when I saw this new book in the series, The Whales on the Bus. It's jam packed full of different animals, all illustrated in Nick Sharratt's signature style, who are on various modes of transport. There are bees on their skis who go zoom, zoom, zoom, seals on the sub who go up and down, and dragons on the wagon who shout roar, roar, roar. I love that we can learn these and sing them wherever we are to mix up the familiar Wheels on the Bus rhyme. This is a fantastic series and so much fun for grown ups and little ones to read and sing together.

I have had to road-test this book via Zoom due to Covid 19. It went down very well with a group of tinies watching me read via Zoom. They were glued to the screen. The brightly coloured pages and clear text are very appealing. Apart from use in EYFS this book would make a fab present for a young family member. It is an ideal bedtime book as it leads up to that 'Time for bed' moment. All in all, a delightful book which I can see would be re-read numerous times by children aged 1 to 3.

Love this! We enjoyed singing along to it and giggling at the funny animals and what they were getting up to. The vivid illustrations add to the fun nature of the story. Overall, definitely one a lot of children will adore and want to read over and over. What a lovely story!

Such a great book. Vibrant illustration and a new take on the wheels on the bus, which is one on my daughter's favourite songs. This book will keep your little ones entertained for hours.

You can’t go wrong with a Nick Sharratt illustrated book – you know you are in for humour and fun! This is no different, aimed at pre-school children. The play on the traditional song “Wheels on the Bus” is really interesting, swopping the usual lyrics for inventive rhymes to make this more interesting, but I have had it in my head ever since. Silly and fun, this will keep little readers engaged and it would be easy to add in actions, like “up and down” to make it interactive when reading aloud to the catchy rhythm and rhyme. Would be a great addition to any nursery library!
Thank you to Net Galley for the advance e-book copy of this title.

You know it's a good book when you finish and hear cries of "again, again!". I can see this one becoming a firm favourite.

Bright, bold and fun drawings mixed with singing a funny song to a tune we all know, my boys (1 & 3) loved it.

I read this book with my toddler and he absolutely loved it.

A great book alongside lovely illustrations.

The song will be in your head for days after.

My daughter absolutely loves Car, car, truck, jeep so knew we had to read this one.
I love that it is still the same tune, but made into a book you can read with them
Hopefully they will do more as my girls love them and love singing along!

I read this for the first time with my two year old next to me and we both absolutely loved it!! The fact that we could sing along with a tune that he recognised instantly drew his attention and give me a good tempo to read the book. The illustrations were bright, bold and fun and our favourite was definitely llamas in pyjamas. This will be a strong contender for favourite bedtime story when it is out.

I absolutely adore Nick Sharratt and his illustrations! I was and still am a huge Jacqueline Wilson fan and as Nick illustrated all of her books, I became a fan of his art too! The illustrations in this book were fun, bright, colourful and funny!

Whales on the Bus is a clever, fun and inventive twist on the classic nursery rhyme Wheels on the Bus and I think children would love and enjoy this book greatly. I work with a lot of older children with additional needs and they would most certainly have fun reading and singing along with this book. They would even love to come up with their own additions too!

As this was an eARC copy, the layout of the words and the consistency was a bit all over the place but as I know the song, I managed to read along without an issue.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book to read and providing me with the opportunity to give my own, honest opinion.

This book is brilliant, eye catching and bright! A hilarious version of The Wheels on The Bus but with animals and different things to ride. As usual with Nick Sharratt's books, the illustrations are brilliant. This is defiantly a book to look out for. Our favourite parts were the bees on their skis and the snakes on skates. Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.

Another rollicking singalong, lots of laughably funny verses.

We loved 'Car Car Truck Jeep', and 'Go Go Pirate Boat', I have read both numerous times at bedtime and in library/playgroup storytimes, with other parents joining in. Familiar tunes and some fun new verses with familiar objects. Both are great fun to read aloud (once you've practiced a bit!) and I've found that kids are fascinated by a song they know with new words.

I was very excited to see a third in the series, and it's all about animals, so most likely a winner again. With Sharratt illustrating you know what you're getting, very clear and colourful animals in some rather amusing vehicles.

And Charman does her usual trick of pulling off some funny verses with internal rhymes that are (mostly) simple enough to get your tongue around. Who wouldn't like to see a tiger in a glider? The bees on their skis? Seals on a sub?

With bits of learning in there - animal names, vehicles, animal sounds and actions, this is a perfect join-in bedtime singalong, which even finishes off with llamas in pyjamas ready for bed.

Fab. As always. And makes a great change from the real lyrics!

For ages 2 and above (and why not younger?!).

With thanks to Netgalley for providing an advance reading copy.

Not my usual book to review this, but I HAD to get my hands on this. My daughter is 18 months old and she absolutely loves Car, Car, Truck, Jeep. We read it at least 10 times a day. Go, Go, Pirate, Boat is another favourite, so I couldn’t wait to read this one to her. She loves it.

It’s a brilliant and funny reimagining of a classic nursery rhyme. It’s clever too. I loved seeing a few faces from the previous books poking their heads up!

The rhyme is easy to follow and funny, and as always the illustrations are great. Big, bright and bold colours and drawings that compliment the book well.

I loved it and she loved it. I’ve preordered a copy!

You'll find whales on buses, bees on skiis and plenty more hilarious scenarios in this brilliant picture book.

Just like Car, Car, Truck, Jeep this book is a lot of fun to read aloud! My children joined in from the second line of each page and loved laughing at all the crazy scenarios. Their favourite page was definitely the seals on the sub, which I had to read three times in a row. We also laughed a lot when the dragon made an appearance and there was plenty of singing with the goats.

Sharratt's artwork is bright and bold with his signature style. The story has a gentle, sleepy feel to the last two pages, making this story perfect for before bed, or as a pre nap-time read at home or nursery. We loved this story and would definitely recommend it.