The Wheels on the Tuk Tuk by Kabir Sehgal

The Wheels on the Tuk Tuk Reviews

• 
  Kathryn

  Delightful and educational, perfectly pitched to the target audience. The back matter is great and offers deeper insights, but the story and pictures of the story proper are enough for the littlest readers giving them a sense of another culture and I imagine it will resonate and stay with them because of the familiar rhyme. Thanks to Cheryl for recommending this (read her fine review for more details:
  
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
• 
  Alyson (Kid Lit Frenzy)

  Sometimes a twist on a book ruins it for me. I liked the idea of learning about a new culture and presenting it to young kids. I was not a fan of setting the story to the tune of "the wheels on the bus".
• 
  Milton Public Library

  Come along on a fun tuk tuk ride around a bustling Indian city! Sing along to the tune of Wheels on the Bus to learn about how others get around and the differences between our culture and Indian culture. You really get a good sense for what a typical day may look like for a tuk tuk wala (driver). Not only do you learn about that a tuk tuk is but you also learn about the culture by what people eat, drink, and celebrate! This is a great book we added to the library thanks to a grant we received to include create a collection around the people and culture of South Asia. It is fun for everyone to sing and learn.
  
  Find it in our SHARE Catalog today!
  
  Ashley C. / Milton Public Library #CheckOutMPL
• 
  Abigail

  Taking the classic children's song, The Wheels on the Bus, as an inspiration and starting point, mother-son author team Surishtha and Kabir Sehgal transplant the narrative to a busy city in India, and substitute a tuk-tuk - a sort of automated rickshaw - for the bus. The singsong narrative follows the tuk tuk and its walla (or driver) as they pick up and set down passengers, and make their way through the busy streets...
  
  I liked the idea of The Wheels on the Tuk Tuk quite a bit, and appreciated the glimpse it offered of India, a setting too infrequently seen in American picture-books. I was reminded a bit, in this sense, of Karen Lynn Williams'
  Tap-Tap, a picture-book featuring the colorful trucks that function as buses in Haiti. That said, although I appreciated the theme here, sometimes the rhyme felt a little awkward, as if the authors weren't quite able to fit the words they wanted into the existing song structure. No doubt this is the drawback of using such a well-known piece of music as a template. Leaving that aside, this was an engaging book, and featured colorful, appealing artwork. Recommended to those looking for new takes on the old song, The Wheels on the Bus, or for picture-books with an Indian setting and cultural background.
• 
  Hannah Jane

  I read this book right before a recent storytime when I had planned to sing The Wheels on the Bus. And I am SOO happy I did. I couldn't just add the book at the last minute, but I did tell everyone we were going to add a verse. I told them what the verse was - "the people on the bus go bobble, bobble, bobble" and showed them my interpretation of bobbling, which is what I now affectionately call the "waddle sit." Their reaction was hilarious. They loved it as much as I do. I cannot wait to use this book in a future storytime. The sounds and words are fun, unique, and will definitely inspire interesting conversations. This book is also super interactive. The first time I read it, I was driving, mooing, jumping up and down, and doing my new bobble move.
• 
  Phobean

  The rhyme scheme in this adorable picture book is. So. SATISFYING.
• 
  David

  Cute version that’s less annoying than the one that’s been sung in my house.
• 
  Cheryl

  I can't recommend this highly enough to all families and children's libraries! Not only is it a familiar (to Westerners) rhyme in an unfamiliar setting, but it's changed to make it absolutely fascinating. I so wish that this was avl. when my boys were little... what a *fun* way to learn about chai, and yogis, and cattle, and street life in India, and Diwali, etc. etc. I particularly liked all the different skin tones and clothing choices - India is far from homogenous, and far too few Americans realize this.
  
  Glossary serves as rich author's note.
  
  4.5 stars rounded up because I think it's important to share more OwnVoices books like this, even if the authors are apparently immigrants I opine that counts.
  
  (After reading others' reviews, I see some have trouble with the rhythm. Others don't. I didn't. I suggest practice. I also see someone rightly point out that the author's note should have said 'where' in India this is set... but otoh it's probably a fairly universal experience.)
• 
  Tasha

  This picture book puts an Eastern Indian twist on The Wheels on the Bus rhyme. Here it’s the tuk tuk taxi’s wheels that go round and round instead. The picture book captures the hustle and bustle of a city in India with people getting on and off the tuk tuk, rupees going ching ching as payments are made, and people having to squish in together.The tuk tuk stops for cows in the road and also for a drink of chai for the driver. There are spraying elephants and then the trip ends with Diwali fireworks in the sky. It’s a merry and dynamic ride that pays homage to the original while being uniquely its own story.
  
  It is the energy of this book that makes it so much fun. The setting is captured in small moments that make sure that readers know that they are somewhere specific and exceptional. The rhyme retains its dynamic pace with the tuk tuk filling with passengers of all ages as the book moves along the streets of India.
  
  The illustrations in the book are bright and cheery. They show busy streets with monkeys, cows, goats and more. Good food appears like steaming chai and poppadoms and then is happily shared with one another.
  
  A superb look at another culture through a familiar preschool rhyme, this picture book invites readers along for a ride of a different sort. Appropriate for ages 2-4.
• 
  Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance

  Cybils nominee for best fiction picture book. More later.
• 
  kendall

  2.5 year old loves it! Wheels on the bus is his favorite so a nice change up. Love them learning about different cultures. Fun to make up hand movements too.
• 
  Ashley Adams

  I was pleasantly surprised to find lyrics to the children's song "The Wheels on the Bus" reimagined. The tuk tuk takes its riders through an adventure that ends with Dewali fireworks. Super fun!
• 
  Joanne Roberts

  A very good idea perhaps not as successful as it could be. Would have loved to memorize this type of song with my kids on car rides. I thoroughly enjoyed the cultural references, but wished the author's note had been a bit more specific. He mentions his trip to India, but not the region or state. Can you imagine a book about a bus trip to Utah which refers to the place only as America? This was a missed opportunity, no? Also, the meter was off, making the chant somewhat less catchy.
• 
  Mary

  This is a bright and colorful picture book that sets The Wheels on the Bus song in a town in India. The playful narrative and illustrations introduce young readers to the culture of a busy Indian metropolis. The author’s note and glossary are very useful and will make this a must-have book for preschool units on India.
• 
  Amanda

  Would give this more stars but for some of the rhymes being a bit awkward.
  
  Loved the illustrations. Loved this new take on an old classic. Loved how it educated about a possibly new/different culture.
• 
  Krystal

  This was such a cute new twist on "The wheels on the bus"! The illustrations were beautiful! And as the characters make there way through town they have comical encounters! I would highly recommend this book!
• 
  Mama Bibliosoph

  The Wheels on the Tuk Tuk is the Indian twist on "The Wheels on the Bus" you didn't know you needed to complete your life.
  
  A tuk tuk, for the unfamiliar, is a 3-wheel auto rickshaw that is used as a private vehicle, but also as a mass transit vehicle, in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, and other places.
  
  The Wheels on the Tuk Tuk brilliantly centers an exploration of a small town in India around the familiar nursery song, instantly communicating with "Tuk Tuk wheels go round and round" that the tuk tuk is equivalent to a city bus. This basis for comparison is further cemented a few pages later when the "Rupees on the bus go ching ching ching."
  
  It's next to impossible not to laugh when a cow sits down in front of the tuk tuk ("Tuk tuk stops for moo-moo-cow.") or when the "Elephant's trunk goes spray-spray-spray". (And the tuk tuk getting soaked with water naturally means that it's time to make the wipers go swish-swish-swish!)
  
  My son Luke absolutely adores this book and loves to try to sing along with me. I love watching him take in this very different landscape of small town India, so beautifully rendered by the illustrator. It's clear to me he's studying it carefully. He loves the song, so it's his window into a variation on a familiar story. Variations on well-loved themes can be very appealing to kids on the spectrum.
  
  ****
  I review books for children from the perspective of a parent of kids with autism. The review above is from a longer blog post about books that are good for introducing race and ethnicity to kids with autism:
  http://www.lineupthebooks.com/10-book...
• 
  Ingrid Sawubona

  A new take on an old classic isn’t always a good thing, but in “The Wheels on the Tuk Tuk”; the authors creatively capture the hustle and bustle of a busy Indian town by introducing the uniqueness and importance of the three-wheeled auto-rickshaw to their audience.
  
  I loved the illustrations in this book! It’s colorful and creative, and it almost helps you experience a different culture when you see the riders hop on and off the packed tuk tuk, pay their rupees (money) to the wala (driver), greet each other with "namaste," stop for a cow that blocks the street, get sprayed with water by a roaming elephant, snack on “poppa-doppa-doms” and even "bobble-bobble-bobble all through the town."
  
  A big selling point for this book is its handy glossary. Not only can you get the translations explained, but you can also learn about the significance of certain terms or objects (like a cow or an elephant) in their cultural context.
  
  The only drawback to the book for me was that although the language was lyrical (and I loved its onomatopoeia), I felt that the rhymes were a bit off at times. But that shouldn’t hinder anyone from enjoying a delightful story.
  
  Quite an enjoyable book! Enjoy! Namaste!
  
• 
  Ashton Jonas

  This sweet spin on ‘the wheels on the bus’ tells of a typical “bus” experience in India where the Tuk Tuk is a very popular form of transportation. As the Tuk Tuk travels all through the town in this book, readers are introduced to various Indian customs and national symbols like the cow, the yogi and the rupee (all explained in simple detail in the back of them book). I really like this book because it takes a traditional American story of the wheels on the bus and uses it to introduce a new culture, one that might be commonly missed, or misunderstood, by most children at a young age. I would use this in a classroom in a lesson on transportation, seeing as the Tuk Tuk is a form of shared taxi very common in India, which could then lead into a lesson on Indian culture and customs because I think knowledge of the world is important. I think having this book is also important because having representation for all students in the classroom is important and a student from India would be represented well through this book.
• 
  Audrey's Picture Books

  First, this book deserves a shout-out for occupying the neglected niche of multicultural children's books whose primary purpose is to be a fun read. So many books with diverse protagonists are designed to be meaningful, and, while that's important, it doesn't tend to result in books that children want to read over and over again. This book is a joyful celebration of India, set to the tune of a universally beloved kids song. The illustrations are fun and engaging. It's truly accesible, even at the 2-year-old level. My only criticism is that the words don't always fit naturally with the rhythm of the song. I suspect that, over time and repeated readings, it would be possible to sing the book in a way that disguises that flaw. It would definitely take some practice, though. The word "tuk tuk" gets sung differently in different verses, depending on how many other words need to be squeezed in. It's a significant technical flaw, but one that could be overcome.
• 
  Jill

  I love reading picture books aloud to my teenagers. I love seeing how stories with an unassuming air penetrate their expectations and add joy and information. The Wheels on the Tuk Tuk excelled in bringing surprise and fun.
  
  It follows the familiar pattern of the wheels on the bus rhythm, but! The characters, setting, culture, words, and experiences are set in India, a country we have yet to visit. Illustrations rendered in chalk, pastels, and colored pencils teach and play with the reader (and listener) at the same time.
  
  Again, I'm an author's note junkie. I love this one so much. An explanation of why the book came to be plus a glossary of new words gave me a greater appreciation for the book. I've since picked up on the meaning and usage of those words defined here in movies and other books I had not noticed or understood until now. Yep! Big fan of author's notes. Picture books are easily one of my favorite ways to learn.
• 
  Becky B

  Take a ride through an Indian town on a tuk tuk with lyrics set to the tune/rhythm of "The Wheels on the Bus."
  
  We have tuk tuks here in Thailand too, but they aren't quite as wild as the Indian ones. (Although I've been on a couple where I was praying to just get back on solid land in one piece before. But that's a rare occurrence.) The main difference is that they only tend to take one fare at a time here in Thailand. Replace the cow in the road with a street dog in the road, and the elephant spray with just a normal torrential downpour and there are definite similarities that our students will readily recognize. Kids in other places will find this an enthralling trip through a daily activity in India. And though it may seem a little zany, it doesn't seem all that far from what is realistically possible. For extra fun, sing this to kids as you read and get them to sing along.
• 
  Rachael Fricke

  Set to the classic song "Wheels on the Bus," this book is a wonderful way to expose children to what every day life for some Indians is like. This book combines the familiar song we all know with vocabulary words in Indian. What a brilliant way to show children that people in other countries are more like us than we realize. There were some words I didn't know as I was reading along, but all of the words are featured in a glossary format in the back of the book. I truly enjoyed this story, even though I already knew it, it was wonderful to see how life in the U.S. parallels with life in India. This books would make for a great classroom read-aloud.
• 
  Patricia Tilton

  This mother and son writing team have created a clever multicultural spin on the popular children's song "The Wheels on the Bus." Children are introduced to Indian culture in this rollicking story about the riders traveling around town in a three-wheeled motorized tuk tuk. Readers will get a taste of street life as riders hop on and off the packed tuk tuk, pay their rupees (money) to the wala (driver), greet each other with "Namaste," stop for a cow that blocks the street, get sprayed with water by a roaming elephant, munch on papadoms (snacks) and "bobble-bobble-bobble all through the town."
  
  As you read the story out loud, you can't help but slip into the melody of the song.  The language is lyrical and a delightful way to engage children using different words, "ching, ching, ching," "squish, squish, squish," and "om, om, om." Jess Golden's lively pastel illustrations are colorful, playful, expressive and encourage exploration. His quirky humor transports children to another country and shows the daily lives of the children and families who live there. 
• 
  Luisa Knight

  A fun, taste-of-India variation on The Wheels on the Bus. You'll see all kinds of people, food, and markets, and experience some of the thrills of riding on a Tuk Tuk.
  
  Ages: 3 - 7
  
  Cleanliness: there is a man sitting 'yogi' style chanting.
  
  #geography #asia #india
  
  **Like my reviews? I also have hundreds of detailed reports that I offer too. These reports give a complete break-down of everything in the book, so you'll know just how clean it is or isn't. I also have Clean Guides (downloadable PDFs) which enable you to clean up your book before reading it! Visit my website: The Book Radar.
• 
  Sam

  An #Ownvoices singalong book about being on a tuk-tuk in India. Normalizes cultural cues, money, differing local landscapes, Diwali celebrations, social aspects of being on public transit of course to the similar tune of "Wheels on the Bus." Authored by South East Indian authors seeking to normalize culture! Helpful phonetic glossary in the back. A family at my toddler and children's storytime thanked me for using this book and checked it out themselves as their kids are half Desi and were born in India! Probably one of my new multilingual singing book songs <3
• 
  Ina

  What a delight! Inspired by travel in India, this bouncy book can be sung to the "Wheels of the Bus" and we follow a tug-tuk "all through the town." A tut-tuk is a three wheeled "shared taxi" (author's note) and on our ride we meet the wall (driver) all sorts of colorful people and scenes on the busy Indian Streets. The illustrations are bright and colorful and full of life. There are monkeys, an elephant and a cow that the driver must stop for. There is a glossary to help with all the unfamiliar words. A fun book to read/sing aloud.
  
  
• 
  Darshana Khiani

  Cute book. Loved the art and onomatopoeia. I like the idea behind it just wished it scanned well. There were a few places I stumbled while reading/singing. Not sure what I think of the yogi sitting on the tuk tuk, seemed random but it does go with the playfulness of the story. Also, the Diwali verse at the end felt totally thrown in, there was no build-up in the art. Diwali in India is like Christmas here is the US.
• 
  Erika

  This was a fun book to read to the toddlers! They knew the tune well! We talked about how the Tuk Tuk was like a bus; in India, people ride the Tuk Tuk to get to places just like we might take the bus sometimes. The kids sang along and did the hand motions for verses like "round and round" and "swish, swish, swish." We also talked about how this book fit well with the second step of the Reading Without Walls challenge because we learned about a new country!