Product DescriptionIn spite of the intellectual, emotional, and physical barriers between him and the student who ride his bus every day, Bertram, a bus driver for special children, enjoys a special friendship with his passengers.From Publishers WeeklyEvery day, Bertram, a bus driver, makes his "fruit-cake" run, delivering seven severely handicapped children to and from their school. The backgrounds and conflicts of each of his passengers is touchingly related in this unique collection of stories focusing on family relationships. Vignettes dealing with each character in turn reveal how some of the students have been scarred by abusive or overprotective guardians, while others, the recipients of unconditional love and acceptance, have gained high self-esteem. Perhaps most poignant are the stories of Fleur, a foster child who has retreated into a world of science, and brain-injured Thoby, whose response to music is discovered by his devoted sister. Anderson's ability to intuit and communicate the thoughts of her characters is nothing less than remarkable. Rarely sentimentalizing or even labeling their disabilities, she provides a perceptive study of their attitudes and capacities. Ages 10-up.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.From School Library JournalGrade 5-9-- In Anderson's book, readers live for a while in the minds and bodies of eight special children. Bertram drives the route that the other school bus drivers call "the fruit-cake" run. His passengers are mentally and, in some cases, physically handicapped as well. But that's okay with Bertram; "Wouldn't swap my fruit-cakes for the world," he laughs. Readers meet Rebecca, 15, who has Down's Syndrome, as she learns a hard lesson about the realities of life for girls "with 47 chromosomes instead of 46." They enter the mind of Mickey, a teenaged boy whose deformed body frustrates his adolescent sexuality and dreams of freedom. And there is the story of Fleur as she might tell it if she would speak. But Fleur does not like to talk, or walk, or run, or think. She is frozen in her fears of a past when she was locked in a small dark closet. The vignettes are powerful, moving, and beautifully constructed. The stories they tell are a balance of kindness and cruelty, understanding and intolerance, all of which echo the real world. Although the portraits are brief, the individuals are well developed, realistic, and memorable. With its rich prose and unforgettable characters, The Bus People is more than a good book about disability . It is--quite simply--a good book. --Constance A. Mellon, Department of Library & Information Studies, East Carolina Univ . , Greenville,Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.