PATRICIA GROSSMAN 

The night bus carries people who work at night to their job—-in an office building, a bakery, a hotel, an airport, and a dockyard—and the morning bus takes them home again.

 

"The story with its richly detailed illustrations takes readers on a tour of the nighttime world that quietly awakens when most of the city is asleep. . . . Interesting and warmly appealing, the book has a quiet charm that makes it an effective choice for a different perspective on how a city works."

—The Boston Globe

 

"Things that happen at night are naturally intriguing to children, who get to see so little of it. Jobs that seem perfectly ordinary by day can acquire a mysterious allure when done after dark. Grossman explores the world of night workers, or 'night ones' by following the characters as they go about their task of keeping the city running overnight . . . the text conveys a nice feeling of respect for the unseen workers on whom the city depends. Children will also enjoy the satisfying feeling of completion as the day workers arrive with the dawn and the night ones board the bus for home." 

—ALA Booklist

 

"There is no plot as such, just a handful of well-chosen words per page (or no words at all) to bring to life these people and their typical night shifts. The spareness of the language does not preclude depth or color; even the names are apt. The baker finishes her work thus: 'Honey greets the avenue with a heavenly smell.' Gender-free occupational titles are used, and the characters are of both sexes and of various ages and ethnic origins . . .  For individual enjoyment or reading aloud, this may also supplement units on careers or urban life." —School Library Journal