Jay-Jay and his Island Adventure


Children - Picture Book
42 Pages
Reviewed on 03/13/2017
Buy on Amazon

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Author Biography

I am a teacher. I love telling, and sharing stories with children.
When my children were little, they attended a Playbus, this was a play project based on a double-decker bus. We had many adventures and lots of fun on the bus. My story books have links to this involvement as well as adventures from my teaching career.
'Jay-Jay the Supersonic Bus,' the first of my picture story books, is about the Playbus. A bus that was old and always breaking down, but just like the real bus it gave the children a safe place to play.
This story was been followed by a few more stories.
‘Jay-Jay and his Island Adventure’, was based on a book bus which visited a small Island on a tiny ferry boat. The children on the Island had never seen a double-decker before and certainly not one full of toys to play with. The week on the island was full of pirate themed activities and as always, the children enjoyed a safe fun place to play.
The island illustration on the cover is a tiny place in Spain. There the children had never seen a double-decker bus in their village and were fascinated that Jay-Jay was once a real bus.
The book has been read in the local schools and library.
Jay-Jay may not have actually visited Spain, but in my mind he did.


    Book Review

Reviewed by Rosie Malezer for Readers' Favorite

Jay-Jay and his Island Adventure is a children’s book written by Sue Wickstead and illustrated by Jon Mitchell. Jay-Jay is a double-decker, Supersonic Playbus, which travels from town to town and is greeted by many excited children, each of whom cannot wait to play with the toys and read the many exciting books on board. After being invited to visit an island, Jay-Jay becomes very anxious and nervous, never having travelled over water before. After a brief ferry ride, Jay-Jay is greeted by children who live on the island, and who are more excited than normal, due to never having seen a bus before, let alone a double-decker bus! After a full week of fun, play and excitement, the children go home and Jay-Jay departs for the ferry ride home.

From beginning to end, Jay-Jay and his Island Adventure is filled with excitement and thrills, keeping even the most anxious minds enthralled by such a tale. Sue Wickstead has written a wonderfully imaginative story of a real-life bus, which travels around the United Kingdom, bringing fun and adventure everywhere it goes. The emotion which is felt by Jay-Jay, leading up to his initial journey on a ferry, is typical of many young children – and even adults – who have never travelled over water before. Although highly anxious, Jay-Jay is relieved to have survived the scary water adventure, before thrilling a whole new audience with the fun that he offers on board. I very much enjoyed the story, as well as the illustrations provided, and believe that Jay-Jay and his Island Adventure would be well received by young audiences, whether or not they have travelled via ferry before, as it shows that most fears are imagined, but are replaced by fond memories when the journey is over.

Jessica Johnson

Another Fun Jay-Jay Story!

May 23, 2019
Like Wickstead’s first Jay-Jay children’s picture book, Jay-Jay the Supersonic Bus I also enjoyed Jay-Jay and his Island Adventure. Jay-Jay’s story continues as he goes on an island adventure to see even more children who have never seen a double decker bus! You can feel Jay-Jay’s many emotions as he prepares for his adventure.

Jay-Jay definitely has an adventure before he even gets to meet the children: he has an injury which needs to be repaired. Everything is worth it as the kids love Jay-Jay and he stays there a whole week!

Again the story flows well and the pictures are enjoyable. The pictures seem like ‘watercolor type’ pictures, which is unique. If you have kids and they enjoyed the first Jay-Jay book, they will definitely enjoy them all!

There is also a page dedicated to the real Jay-Jay which includes some pictures of the bus.

donnas book blog

We love Jay-Jay!

May 9, 2019
I have read a couple of books by this author now I have to say that she creates some fabulous books to read, I love Jay-Jay and he is a fantastic lead to the series and I know that he is someone that young and old children with love - I really enjoyed it as an adult!

The story is easy to follow and it has a nice natural flow to it. I loved seeing what adventures Jay-Jay gets to go on now he has his new lease of hive and this is a nice, genuine, feel good story!

4.5 stars from me for this one, rounded up to 5 stars for Amazon and Goodreads, it is a well written story with some great characters – very highly recommended and can’t wait to see what Jay-Jay gets up to next!!

JED

ay-Jay's on another adventure

April 9, 2017
Another fun adventure with Jay-Jay the Supersonic Bus. This time around he's headed to an island and taking his first boat ride before meeting up with the newest group of kids. The ride is a bit bumpy and I loved the thoughts from Jay-Jay about feeling seasick and his hurting bottom. It's funny to think bout a bus's feelings. Then we have a bit of pirate fun with the kids. A great story and wonderful illustrations.

Marie T

I kind of wish I had grown up in an area where Playbuses were a thing.

March 14, 2017
Cover

Lovely--classic and professionally designed. Good text treatment, and very nice layout.

Illustrations

Lovely artwork throughout this book as well. Each page--including cover page--has a unique piece of artwork. A lot of care went into crafting the illustrations (kudos to Chris Hahner and Jon Mitchell), as well as into the layout of the book (Claire Shaw).

Story

I reviewed a previous Jay-Jay book, and loved it. The whole idea of a playbus makes me feel like a big kid. It's the kind of thing I would have adored as a child, and I love the idea still.

The story is very well written. The author has a wonderful, descriptive style (e.g. - an excited Jay-Jay "felt his diesel pumping and his engine racing," and Jay-Jay gets seasick as the diesel in his tank sloshes around).