Somebody on This Bus Is Going to Be Famous!, J.B. Cheaney
Realistic fiction
Booktalk: Every day, nine middle school kids ride the bus together. It’s eight miles, and it takes 25 minutes, so by the end of the school year, they’ll have spent 75 hours on the bus together. And a lot will happen during those 75 hours.
This book starts with the ending: a cop gets a call that a school bus has gone over the side of a bridge and crashed into a ditch, and no one knows what has happened to the students on the bus.
We flash back to nine months earlier: the beginning of the school year. Each of the nine middle-school students on the bus narrates one chapter, explaining all of the things that happened leading up to the pivotal moment of the bus crash. Along the way, science fairs are won (and lost), friendships begin (and end), family members are born (and die), parents split up (and stay together), and mysteries are solved. Oh: and one of the people on the bus becomes famous – but it’s not who you’d expect.
Similar titles: Because of Mr. Terupt (Rob Buyea), If a Tree Falls at Lunchtime (Gennifer Choldenko), Wonder (R.J. Palacio)