Beatrice is nine years old and she has already chosen her career. Not a ballerina, not a footballer, not a pop star and definitely not a film star — a bus driver. A London bus driver, with a proper cap and a proper route and a proper bell.
The trouble is that a dream this specific attracts opposition. At school it makes her the odd one out. At home it runs straight into her mum, who Beatrice privately files under dream-flusher: a grown-up with an unfortunate habit of pulling the chain on any idea that has not been pre-approved.
A model bus in a shop window
Then Beatrice spots a model Routemaster in a shop, and decides two things at once: that she must have it, and that she is going to turn it into a real, full-sized, talking London Bus that she can drive herself.
And one day — guess what? — on an ordinary London street she meets a Bus that talks back. RM 168 via Waterloo, bowler hat and all. He can only be heard by people with an enormous imagination, and it turns out Beatrice is exactly that sort of person.
Did her wish come true? Has she suddenly turned into a wizard, even though what she wanted was to be a bus driver? No — she is not tall enough to be a wizard, Beatrice thinks. Was it just a dream, then?
Read this one if…
- You are meeting Beatrice for the first time — this is where everybody is introduced.
- There is a child in the house whose ambitions worry the adults slightly.
- You like a bedtime book with short chapters and a lot of scope for silly voices.
