The Christmas Bus
Robert Inman; illustrations by Lyle Baskin

Novello Festival Press
978-0-9760963-6-8
$19.95 hardcover
10 5/8 x 8  
80 pages; 24 full-color illustrations
Published in 2006
Children/Young Adult, Gift & Holiday, North Carolina

The unique history of The Christmas Bus is that it actually began as a play and is now a book published by Novello Festival Press. Blowing Rock Stage Company produced the story of The Christmas Bus as their holiday production in 2003, a world premiere for author Bob Inman, who actually found himself a featured performer in the play.

In The Christmas Bus, Christmas is coming to the Peaceful Valley Orphanage where kindly Mrs. Frump is in charge of a gaggle of rowdy kids.

Frump decides that her orphans need real homes and real families to fill the emptiness in their lives. So on the day before Christmas, she loads the kids onto a rickety old bus and sets off to deliver them to their destinations.

Trouble is, she hasn't asked permission from the busybodies on the board of trustees, who think Frump is too old and frazzled to handle her brood. Along the way, they pick up a traveling troubadour on his way home to a girlfriend who may not be very happy to see him. Soon, what began as a simple bus ride turns into a harum-scarum adventure as Frump and her orphans are pursued by the busybodies—and the suspicious Sheriff Snodgrass.

In what is sure to become a modern Christmas classic, Robert Inman weaves a heartwarming tale of love, laughter, and serendipity. With delightful illustrations by Lyle Baskin, The Christmas Bus will appeal to every member of the family.