Loren Long, author illustrator of The Yellow Bus (Roaring Brook Press), talks about his contemplative exploration of the life of a bus.
Listen along:
About the book: The Yellow Bus by Loren Long. Published by Roaring Brook Press.
Perfect for fans of Love and Hello, Lighthouse, The Yellow Bus from #1 New York Times bestselling Loren Long is a tender and hopeful new classic about a forgotten school bus that finds happiness and purpose in the most unexpected places--and in the journey along the way.
There is a bright yellow bus who spends her days driving. She loves carrying children from one important place to another. Every morning they climb in...Pitter-patter, pitter-patter, giggle, giggle-patter.And they fill her with joy.
As time passes, things change. The Yellow Bus gets a new driver, a new route, and new passengers, young and old. Until one day the driving stops for good, and the Yellow Bus is left on her own. And yet, no matter where she is, the Yellow Bus still finds joy and discovery in the world around her.
With stirring black-and-white artwork and powerful pops of color,The Yellow Busis a poignant reflection on the many new beginnings life has to offer.
INTRO
Matthew: Welcome back to the Children’s Book Podcast, where we dive deep into the world of creativity, storytelling, and the magic behind the art of creating books for children.
I’m your host, Matthew Winner. Teacher. Librarian. Writer. Fan of kids.
Today, we are honored to have a guest whose beautiful illustrations and heartwarming stories have become beloved by readers young and old. Joining us is the incredible Loren Long, the talented author and illustrator of many cherished books, including his latest work, The Yellow Bus. Loren’s storytelling and illustrations have a unique ability to convey emotion and connection, making his books a favorite in homes and classrooms alike.
In The Yellow Bus, Loren takes readers on a journey filled with warmth and nostalgia, exploring themes of community, change, and the simple joys of everyday life. In this episode, we’ll delve into Loren’s creative process, the inspiration behind The Yellow Bus, and what it takes to create stories that resonate deeply with readers of all ages.
So, without further ado, let’s welcome Loren Long to the show!
INTERVIEW
Loren: Hello, my name is Loren Long, and I am an author and illustrator. And, uh, for children's literature. And my newest book is called The Yellow Bus, which I've both written and illustrated.
Matthew: And now Loren, this book is going to. come out, I believe as of recording this, it, it, it came out yesterday, right?
Loren: Right.
Matthew: Congratulations. We'll, we'll release this, um, uh, at the end of July for like getting close to back to school. I know timing and promotion and all that is sort of a funny thing. Uh, I'm grateful that you and I are recording this. fresh off of that book hitting shelves. That's exciting. So, uh, for those Loren, who, who won't have read the book yet, having listened to this, um, could you please describe the story of The Yellow Bus, uh, really for your readers of all ages?
Cause I, I definitely count myself in that group.
Loren: Excellent. Excellent, Matthew. Thank you. Um, yeah, so The Yellow Bus is a picture book that is kind of a contemplative exploration of the life of a particular yellow school bus. And when you hear a picture book called The Yellow Bus, you may not imagine where this particular story goes.
The Yellow Bus starts out with a grand, bright, and shiny life doing what she was built to do, and that is to carry the most precious cargo from one important place to another and back. And, um, and she, and that fills her with joy. And, um, but like, like most of our lives, there are, there are turns and unexpected twists in the life of this bus.
And, um, it really is evident, Matthew, when, when I tell you the inspiration for the story,
Matthew: and Which you've also included in the back matter. I love that I saw it on social media, but Right. Please do tell what a, what a morning jog turned into a picture book.
Loren: Yeah, so, yeah, so during, four years ago, right, four years ago, even when this is broadcast over the summer, Um, the world was, you know, in the middle of a pandemic with question marks all over.
My wife and I adopted a a pandemic rescue dog, a hound dog. We adopted Charlie was his name and he turned me into a runner. I was never a runner until then, but he, he was high energy and he became my studio dog. The first one I've ever had, Matthew, we've had, we're dog lovers, animal lovers,
Matthew: but
Loren: this, this is the first dog that when I'm in my studio and in the house here, he's there by my side, uh, regardless of where Tracy, my wife is.
Charlie just loves to be in my studio with me
Matthew: and,
Loren: and we became fast friends. So every afternoon though, I would take him out to kind of let him run off some of his energy. And there's a bike trail near our house. We live here in Southwest Ohio, uh, near Cincinnati. And I run along this wooded bike trail and we would look through the trees and we saw, uh, an abandoned old, rusted out, uh, school bus.
And I mean really old and sinking in the mud and, uh, covered in rust and, um, surrounded by goats. It was in the corner of a goat paddock. So, it, like, uh, I, I kind of, it's like, okay, you see, you're running along a wooded trail. You see a goat paddock through the trees and, uh, you're, you're kind of thinking, okay, that's, that makes sense.
Or if you're running along a sidewalk and you see a yellow bus, a school bus, you're like, yeah, that, that makes sense. Very familiar. But if you see that school bus rusted out, abandoned in the goat paddock, now that's curious. What's it doing there? And so it's a great example for young people and children of how stories can come from your everyday life.
And at first I was just like, curious, you know, kind of feeling sorry for the bus. You know, surely it was supposed to have this grand life of purpose. There it is stuck in the mud with the goats, but over about the course of a year, running along through spring, summer, climbing the bus. to get out of the heat or rain in the middle of winter snow.
We'd run because Charlie needed his daily run. And, um, I'd see the goats climbing on top using the bus as a playground. And it, it occurred to me that bus seems happy. And then all of a sudden, what could have been a cute story about a yellow school bus became something deeper and, um, about purpose in life and the passage of time.
And that's when I started, that's when I went home and started, I got out my notepad and started writing. Um, and I came across that simple refrain in, in the book, they filled her with joy. And so what I kind of felt like is I want readers, young and old, to be as curious about why she's happy as I was, um, when I was, when I first noticed that actual bus that inspired the story.
Matthew: It's, it's, it's one of reflecting that our own purpose, our own meaning is derived from those we share meaning with, that what makes that yellow bus needed. in that paddock with goats, is that It's sharing that space with goats. The goats need the bus and the bus needs the goat to play on that. And, um, no, no, I, I mentioned to you in, in prepping for this interview that so much of this story felt to me like an instant classic.
And then that took me out of my head and went, wait, is it possible to know you're writing something Like that, I wrote to you, did Virginia Lee Burton, was she aware, could she have been aware of what she was creating with the little house? Perhaps even the same way that, uh, Katie Camillo has a wonderful book called The Adventures of Edward Tulane about this porcelain rabbit that comes to understand itself and its fragility only by understanding itself in relation to other people, by, by living is how we understand ourselves. Uh, it's not at all that this bus has anything to prove, but It's as if its value is just proven over and over by being in community with others. That's, that's such a big life thesis, Loren. I love it.
AD BREAK
Matthew: It's not at all that this bus has anything to prove, but It's as if its value is just proven over and over by being in community with others. That's, that's such a big life thesis, Loren. I love it.
But I wonder for you, and I don't mean to dispel any of the magic around it, but when you were crafting this story, when you were taking these runs, were you able to sense the capacity that this story had for what it could hold, what it could tell, for what?
space it could preserve for us readers to walk into it?
Loren: It's such a great question. It is, it's a thing, right, Matthew? We, we, we make art, we make stories, um, we write songs, you know, not me personally, but, um, but somebody creates something and it has meaning and it's easier to make it. than it is to describe what it means.
Um, and that I'll, I'll do my best to do that. But, um, I think in the beginning I started to write kind of an exploration of, of this bus. So I had a framework. I knew where that bus began, right? And, because all school buses start in the grand purpose. They're bright and they're shiny. Um, and then I had a framework of, okay, that particular bus that I happen to notice is in a goat paddock abandoned.
And, um, so I had a framework of, okay, where, what steps went to get it there. And then I wanted to surprise my character. I wanted to surprise my reader and I wanted to surprise myself. So I thought, where can I go further? By then I had come across that they fill her with joy. And so there is a, you're hitting, you're completely hitting it with the community, but also just the service and just this idea that good people do things for others.
And The idea that true, potentially, right? Potentially, this notion that maybe true fulfillment and true happiness is when we're thinking about someone else, when we're actually doing something for someone else. And I was like, Oh my, you know, that is a profound, um, simple, but very profound thought. Um, but we can see it in our everyday lives.
We can see people around us who embody the spirit of The Yellow Bus. We can see it in ourselves sometimes. And I mean, I remember the first time I gave my brothers a Christmas gift, I was more excited to give them a gift. I think it was Levi jeans, just this idea that, wow, maybe, you know, we live in a. And not to get overly philosophical, but we live in a time where we are so wrapped up in, uh, our selfie world and everything and, and I get caught up in all of it as much as anyone, but really, I was like, okay, now I've got this bus and I can show that she's happiest when she's, um, serving someone else, whether it's, you know, the little children, or the older adults, or, and then I went to an unhoused community.
And yet she is filled with joy. And there's another piece that I really started digging, you know, like loving, and that was, think about our own lives, Matthew. We can't control always what happens to us. It's just, we can't, I can't control what happens to this book. It's gone. You know, I can try to, to share social media posts and I can read it to children and I can talk to you, but it's out of my control.
So, so there's another piece. The yellow bus is not, she doesn't always have agency of her own life, but she does have agency over her outlook. And she chooses to be filled with joy and, you know, because she's doing something for others. So. I'm kind of talking around the circle of the same theme, but yeah,
Matthew: well, here, even we can, we can, without giving away too much of the book, there is a point where The Yellow Bus can't be driven anymore, where, where we might say what that purpose was, that the way that she was able to serve the community changed and couldn't, Couldn't be what it was, but also you've done this really, can't find the words.
So I'm going to say you do this beautiful trick with the art, which is that all of the illustration for the most part, all of the illustration is black and white, except for the bus and more importantly, everything that touches the bus, it is as if that joy that she is filled with. It is the other people, the, the, she's yellow, but they bring other colors to her, they bring other, other joy to her, other, in fact, they bring other, literal other colors to her at one point with, with one of the communities, but it's To me, it also feels in, in that way.
Uh, it feels like that metaphor of, of you light me up. You bring me joy that that's what's happening here. I'm, I'm becoming even more of myself. The bus isn't changing shape and yet she's becoming more than what she was because she is in the community with children, with elderly individuals, with goats, with, with other people surprises in the story that no less bring her joy. They don't bring her less joy. We're not quantifying where the greatest joy came from, but rather that at each point in life, I found something to fill me with joy.
Loren: Yeah. And that, that use of color became just sort of a gut thing in the beginning based on the iconic.
Uh, uh, the, the iconic yellow of the school bus in our society, and that's when I decided, okay. Um, and this is like well into the sketch dummy, which is this sort of like the, um, storyboard, if you will, of making a picture book. It's very early on when, when you have a manuscript that's approved, but then you're making the visuals and you're trying to deal with the pacing and you're trying to do the page turns and you've.
You're making the sketches and it really hit me at that point. Um, this is a yellow school bus and it is, uh, it is again, an iconic symbol of. our childhood, but also our life and our society and many societies in the world. And that's when I was like, okay, I want that. I want that to shine through. I want that to pop off every spread.
And I knew I was going to have big panoramic overhead scenes where the little bus is tiny. I thought, I want a, I want a, a 13 or 14 month old that might be sitting on the lap, not completely grasping the depth of the story. I still want them to have time together and the 15 month old can point and find the yellow off that charcoal ground, you know, meaning the background of, of that gritty, dusty, charcoal, scratchy.
You can see those acrylic yellows pop. And so that wasn't a plan until I was deep into the sketches. I had to pitch that to the editorial team. Um, you know, cause people kind of expect, they probably expected a full color paint, you know, painted book. And I'm like, what do you guys think about, uh, and this is what I love Matthew about making books.
I really do love the collaborative. process of it. I like bouncing ideas and having them bounce ideas to me because in this case, four heads are, are, are smarter than just one. And so I'm like, yeah, let's, what do you think about this? I love charcoal. I so, so I showed them literally like this over a Zoom call.
Matthew: Over a Zoom call. Here's what it could look like.
Loren: Here's what my charcoal drawings have looked like doing other art. I've never done a picture book with charcoal. Um, but now imagine The Yellow Bus. And so they said, yeah, we're on board and they, but I did a sample. I did one sample and I showed them the sample and they were like, yeah, that's it.
Yeah. That yellow really seems the challenge for me was making an acrylic painting, essentially part fit in and meld into this. charcoal, uh, piece of art and mesh it together. And it, and it felt like it would in my head. And it ended up, I think working out pretty, pretty good. And then you brought up.
Matthew: I didn't realize that they were two different things.
Um, they, they do go together so well. Um, I continue. I cut you off. I apologize.
Loren: No, no, that's okay. Just, just a point there. Um, they are two different mediums, but they are on one surface, right? So they are on one.
Matthew: I guess what I'm trying to say is I can't tell that, like, this was charcoal, charcoal, charcoal, charcoal.
And then I left a white space and I can kind of see that there's, oh, there, I tried to fill it in. That's what I'm trying to say. It doesn't, they don't appear to be two things put on top of one another. They do appear to, to be continuous.
Loren: Yeah, thank you. That, that's, that's exactly what I was thinking about when I was by myself questioning my decision and you know, doubting myself, Charlie, what do
Matthew: you think of this? Charlie.
Loren: He's not that talkative until the ups driver comes up the driveway. But, um, so that was your exactly right. So I, I'm like, I, I can't get too much charcoal in my surface. So what I ended up doing a lot, if you really look at the book closely, is, I would, I was using charcoal dust and I was using q tips and, you know, smudging with my fingers, and then I was painting on, in that little open spot.
Now sometimes the bus is very big on a spread, so it was mostly acrylic paint. And then sometimes I would take charcoal and go back into the painting. So it does meld back and forth, you know, and you hit the nail on the head with the decision to make everything inside or everything essentially that's touching the bus become in full color, too, because they're they bring life and fulfillment and joy into her life.
And I thought that would be a nice metaphor. or, you know, showing full color inside there.
Matthew: Yeah. Well, just to emphasize, because of we're having such a great talk about humanity here. It's not just that these outside things are bringing life to the bus, but also that her light is shining off of them.
Ideally we walk through life and the people we interact with reflect us back. We come to understand ourselves by being in the company of others.
Loren: Yeah,
Matthew: that's very good. Hey, tell me about building a 3d model of this way. At what point did it feel like you needed a 3d model? You were talking about doing sketches, charcoal work, and showing the team what that looked like, but in the back of the book, again, in that back matter, not only do you have a picture of the bus, you've got these great photos and descriptions of building.
Listen, there's a new Beetlejuice movie coming out as of recording this. And I, I can't help, but think about the train models that my uncle had growing up and also Beetlejuice. So talk to me about building a 3d model of this town.
Loren: I love it. I love it. Yeah. So actually it was before the choice to do charcoal.
Um, so it was, it was, um, Right when I was beginning, okay, so I had a manuscript and then it's like, okay, I'm gonna, now I'm gonna be the illustrator of this project. So, um, I started, I started thinking about the setting. So, the setting in The Yellow Bus is, um, it takes place over, uh, roughly about 50 or 60 years.
Um, I decided that this school bus would be like a school bus about the age of the first bus I, I rode in, which is a bus in the 70s. And, and I figure it goes almost to about modern time here. It's set in a, a gorge. So there are mountains on either side around it. It's, there's, it's set in, uh, it starts on the top of the hill with a little valley.
I mean, a little, um, town
Matthew: and
Loren: then down to a lower valley and there's a farm and then there's a bridge. The river runs through it. Around it. And then you go, it goes, the bus goes over the bridge and, and along mountains and then down to a lower, uh, farm in the, in the lowest part of the valley of this gorge.
And then the river goes on. So when little eyes and, and readers, young and old open the page, uh, after the title page, they'll see the entire setting and they'll be able to pick out. where the little bus is in the very first wordless spread. And, um, my intention was, okay, I'll show, just like Virginia Lee Burton shows in little house, that landscape changing, I'll show my landscape changing and we'll see the progression from the little town where she goes to the school, picking up children, and then the progressions in the stops along the way.
And, um, in the middle of the book, when the tow truck comes, uh, readers can follow that through and they can notice changes. If they're really paying attention, they'll notice a number of changes that demonstrate the passage of time. And then at the very end of the book, they'll see where The Yellow Bus is.
when they close the story. So this is another
Matthew: wordless spread that, that, that we can flip back and forth between.
Loren: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So readers can kind of go back and forth after they've read it, hopefully many times to see new things. Um, but to answer the question about why build a three dimensional model, I did a little drawing out of my head, you know, just making up the shadows and the, the, shapes of the houses and everything, um, of the village, all the way down to where, uh, the bridge goes across the river.
And I thought, this is a pretty cool drawing. I was, I was fairly pleased with it. And, and then I thought, Oh, wait a second. I've got to, I've got to draw this many times and it's got to change. And there's one thing about drawing out of your imagination, which is a wonderful, wonderful thing to do. Um, and there are so many talented artists that do it in, in our field. Um, but, but again, the, the setting of this felt so important to me that I thought I'd like to see it. So I can, I can look at an angle, or I can look at a panoramic view from a bird's eye directly over top, or I could also get down on the ground and have a, of view from the ground level up.
And that would be hard for me to do with a lot of consistency, especially with my art being somewhat rooted in reality or realistic qualities. So I just thought, I mean, I'm certainly not the first person to do this, but, um, I thought I'm going to build a three dimensional model that won't take too long.
And I thought I'll do it on a card table over in the corner of my studio. And. I'll use cardboard and packaging materials and toothpaste boxes and Q tips and I'll get some model railroad trees and houses and I'll just kind of rough this out so that I can light it and see it. And I got, it wasn't a card table, it ended up being 12 feet long and it ended up taking almost two months and my deadline was pressing.
But it was the most fun I'd had. And, and Matthew, I almost had to remind myself, okay, look, nobody's really going to see this, Loren. It's just a means to an end. But once I built the whole, uh, the whole structure, then it was like me drawing from a still life.
Matthew: Yeah. You
Loren: know, we do see it
Matthew: in that way. We see the results of it.
Loren: I hope so. I hope so. So then that, like I mentioned, the most important thing was lighting it. So I could light it from like, if for mood, I could be right overhead and the sun shining like noon time, or I could do early morning when the bus is picking up children, the angle of the light casts longer shadows, and you really get a lot of mood from that.
And when you're drawing, I like to tell children this, sometimes when you're drawing, draw the shadows, just the shape of the shadows that are being cast from the object. It's, I know that sounds a little technical, but like if you look at, uh, it's really hard to draw a nose, a real nose. If you look at the shape that's being cast from the nose, this light isn't great.
I know listeners aren't seeing, uh, If you can draw shapes, like, all you have to do to draw Otis the Tractor is be able to draw a rectangle, a circle, and a smaller circle. Boom. You've got, you've got Otis the Tractor. And then, you know, you move, move from there. So.
Matthew: But find the shapes in them. Yeah.
Loren: Yeah. Find the shapes.
And the light on that three dimensional diorama really helped me find the shapes.
Matthew: Yeah.
Loren: So, so I'll also say, Matthew, that I've read about Tintoretto in the Italian Renaissance, who, uh, was a painter that built, that built, uh, models for some of his work. And, uh, Thomas Hart Benton was one of my favorite American regionalist painters.
He built these maquettes of his figures. And, uh, so I was kind of, that's always been in the back of my mind, but it was a lot of fun and I think I'm going to do it on some level again in the future.
Matthew: That's terrific. Loren. I'm watching our time, which has slipped away. Yeah. And, um, I feel so grateful first to be reconnected with you, but also that I had, I had written this final question to you and I thought, no, I already know the answer.
And so I'm, I'll put it back to our listeners. I'll just tell you listeners, uh, in a meta form of our, uh, conversation here that I, I wrote you, Loren. I asked, where are you, Loren, most coming through in The Yellow Bus? Where can we see your reflection strongest? And I feel like I already know I don't want to, I don't even want to hear an answer.
I want to leave that for me. And I want to leave that for your readers who discover this book and your readers who hear you on this interview, um, to, to really hear you, uh, and to return to that book and, and see where you are, because I feel like I know, and I, I feel like part of the wonder is not knowing what your answer is, but getting to just savor in what mine is, if that makes sense.
Loren: That makes sense, and, and that is, uh, maybe just so, um, Uh, touching Matthew that you would say that. You, you made a beautiful book, . You would ask that, but you would ask it and, and not answer. But, um, I just wanna say thank you Matthew, thanks for this time. Of course. And thank you for what you're doing out in the world.
And, um, and you do, uh, you do, I believe embody the spirit of the, The Yellow Bus yourself. And thank you. Um, it's a wonderful thing.
Matthew: Loren, let me give you a chance to speak directly out to those readers by saying that I will see a library full of children tomorrow morning. Is there a message that I can bring to them from you?
Loren: Uh, I would say, ask yourself, if, if they're reading The Yellow Bus, um, I would hope they, I touched on this already, but I would hope that they would be as curious about, really think why is that Yellow Bus happy and what makes her happy and Um, and, um, and look around in your own life for all the, the people that, that are like that and, um, and try and, um, try and notice that and, um, and live in that, um, comfort that there are people around that are like The Yellow Bus.
OUTRO
Matthew: Thank you to Loren Long for joining me on The Children’s Book Podcast.
You can pick up your own copy of the The Yellow Bus (Roaring Brook Press) wherever books are found. Consider supporting independent bookstores by shopping through Bookshop.org. You can also use my affiliate link by clicking on the book’s name in our show notes. I highly recommend checking out the audiobooks! Both are available through Libro.fm and you can support independent bookstores in the process!
Our podcast logo was created by Duke Stebbins (https://stebs.design/).
Our music is by Podington Bear.
Podcast hosting by Libsyn.
You can support the show and buy me a coffee at matthewcwinner.com or by clicking the link in the show notes.
And on that note…
Be well. And read on.
End Of Episode
Comentários