Children's book makes bus journeys an adventure

Christopher Candy with his book Comet the Red Bus. Photo / Katie Farman

Dannevirke author Christopher Candy wanted to show children that bus rides could be fun.

So he wrote a children's book.

Candy began working as a school bus driver in 2001 and gradually moved up in the industry, doing a bit of almost everything, and is now urban operations manager for Tranzit Coachlines in Manawatu.

He said he'd noticed when he'd been driving that children seemed to be a little bit scared of the bus.

"Some of them just don't like getting on the bus. I thought maybe if I get it into a book, I can write about a topic I know, and try and make public transport and school buses more friendly and fun.

"Not all the bus drivers are grumpy."

The book, called Comet the Red Bus, for ages 2 to 8, was published in October last year.

It was a picture book with not a lot of words, but it took Candy a couple of months to write it.

"I changed it and changed it and then decided, that's it, I need to get it into print."

Writing a children's book could be a bit of a challenge, but he did his research.

Candy said he bought a lot of children's books, researched online and borrowed a lot of books to see how people wrote for the age bracket.

"[Like] what language because you can't use big words, or you can use some big words they'd understand."

He decided to self-publish the book because most traditional publishers he tried were not open for submissions.

"It's been quite successful. I'm quite pleased with how it's going."

Candy said he had been surprised by the book's success partly because of a lack of self-confidence, but now that he had some great feedback on it, his confidence had grown.

He said when he started driving buses, he was shy and lacked confidence and at times still struggled with it.

But he enjoyed driving and engaging with people.

One of the aims of writing the book was to get more people interested in using public transport.

"You get all sorts of people on the bus, from all backgrounds, all sorts of ethnicities. It's really cool what [kinds of] people you meet on the bus. You watch the kids grow up."

Writing books was something he'd always wanted to do.

"I've got half a dozen manuscripts sitting there doing nothing, various crime thrillers and children's books."

He felt it was just the right time for the book, especially with the lockdowns.

Candy is now keen to get a second one out.

His plan had initially been to write a series of books about Comet and Billie and their adventures.

"I've kind of gone off that slightly to write a book about a boy and his mum and the boy's really scared to catch the bus because everyone's wearing masks.

"He's worried that they might all be grumpy because you can't tell if they're smiling or not."

He felt given what was happening in the country right now, it was good timing for it.

Comet the Red Bus is available through Xlibris, Amazon, Kindle, Google Play and other networks, which are also listed on his website: https://www.christophercandy.co.nz/.

Candy will also be running a Facebook competition from February 1, with two BookStub cards to give away.