Tuesday, March 29, 2022

The Night Bus Hero by Onjali Q. Rauf - OPTIONAL

The Night Bus Hero by Onjali Q. Rauf
, 239 pages. Delacorte (Random), 2022. $17. 

Content: G 

BUYING ADVISORY: EL - OPTIONAL 

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE 

10yo Hector is always up for jokes and pranks. When he is bested by a homeless man in the park, however, Hector takes things too far and sends the man’s entire cart of belongings into the pond. The next time Hector sees Thomas, the homeless man, something strange happens – all the lights in downtown London are clicked off and something important is stolen. No one will believe Hector when he tries to tell, especially Mei Li, a girl from Hector’s grade, who knows Thomas from her work at a homeless food kitchen. The more Hector tries to prove Thomas is the culprit, the less sure Hector is that Thomas really is the bad guy. 

If the book sounds complicated, that’s because it is. And the bit of magical realism/mechanical magic in the book don’t help – Hector is not very interesting and the book didn’t hold my attention. Hector and his family default to white (no descriptions) and while there are some ethnic sounding names, none of that matters within the context of the book. 

 Cindy, Library Teacher, MLS 

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