We will be spending this coming Friday at Robbi’s alma mater, HH Garnet Elementary School We'll be giving two assemblies and doing an all-school book giveaway (made possible by a generous donation from the Friends of the Kent County Public Library). We’ll be hosted by...
Meet Lauren Castaldo of Cape View Elementary in Cape Canaveral, Florida
In early December of 2022, we’ll be visiting the Rockets of Cape View Elementary in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Our host is the wonderful Lauren Castaldo, a media specialist of 16 years, and a dedicated champion of literacy. She took a few minutes to tell us about her...
Meet K.D. Jones of Radley Elementary in East Helena, Montana.
K.D. Jones has been a school library media specialist for 17 years now, and will host our visit to Radley Elementary in May of 2023! She kindly took a few minutes to answer a few questions about her work, her colleagues, and the students of Radley Elementary. WHAT DO...
Meet Jessica O’Donel of McKinley Elementary in Beaverton, Oregon
We’re pleased to introduce you to Jessica O’Donel. Jessica is an ESL teacher of 14 years at McKinley Elementary in Beaverton, OR. She’ll be our host when the bus rolls through Beaverton in May of 2023. We asked her to tell us a bit about herself, her school, and her...
Meet Melinda Harris and Emily Prater
Meet dyslexia therapist Melinda Harris and media specialist Emily Prater. They will be our hosts at Maynard Elementary School when the bus rolls through Maynard, Arkansas, in January 2023. Melinda and Emily took a few minutes to tell us about themselves, their school,...
Meet Lisa Marks of Ludlow Elementary in Ludlow, Vermont
Meet Lisa Marks. She's a fourth grade teacher of 22 years and our host at Ludlow Elementary School in Ludlow, Vermont—one of the first stops on the Busload of Books Tour. Lisa was kind enough to tell us a bit more about herself and the Ludlow community. WHAT GETS YOU...
Meet Rene Bridgewater from Maysville Elementary in Maysville, Georgia
Meet Rene Bridgewater, an 18-year veteran Media Specialist at Maysville Elementary. She’ll be our host when we swing through Georgia in late February 2023. Rene kindly told us a bit about herself and Eagles of Maysville. WHAT GETS YOU OUT OF BED IN THE MORNING? My...
Meet Carly Imhoff from the Ashford School in Ashford, Connecticut
Meet Dr. Carly Imhoff, a science teacher of 11 years and devoted lover of books. She’ll be our host this September at Ashford School of Ashford, CT—one of the first schools we’ll be visiting on the Busload of Books Tour. Carly took a few minutes to tell us a bit about...
Meet Tracey King of Milan Village School in Milan, New Hampshire
Meet Tracey King Title I Reading Coordinator and Librarian for grades K-6 at Milan Village School. Tracey will be our host as the Busload of Books Tour loops through Milan, New Hampshire next September. Shewas kind enough to take a few minutes to tell us about...
Meet Beckie Nieman of North Pike Elementary in Summit, Mississippi
We’d like to introduce you to Beckie Nieman, a teacher and librarian of more than 25 years. She’ll be hosting us this coming December when the Busload of Books Tour makes a stop at North Pike Elementary in Summit, Mississippi. Beckie was kind enough to share a bit...
Meet Megan Mann of Jefferson Elementary in Hammond, Indiana
We're delighted to introduce you to Megan Mann. Megan is a media tech specialist who has spent the past five years connecting kids with books at Jefferson Elementary in Hammond, Indiana. She’ll be our host when the bus stops by Jefferson next October. Megan was kind...
The Busload of Books Tour is a year-long project to promote literacy and raise awareness of the challenges facing our nation’s public schools.

Author/illustrator duo Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr (that’s us) and our four kids will spend the 2022-2023 school year traveling the country in a school bus/tiny home, visiting Title I schools in all 50 states (plus DC), and giving away 25,000 hardcover books to students and teachers from underserved communities.

As we travel, we will be blogging, vlogging and posting frequently to social media. All of our content will be appropriate for bringing families and students along on our ultimate road trip.
The latest on Instagram:
Good night from Milford State Park in Milford, Kansas, where we were not planning to sleep tonight.
We started the day in Oklahoma and loafed a while before driving north to Tanganyika, an interactive wildlife park in Goddard, Kansas. We fed romaine to giraffes, tortoises, and guinea pigs, little tubs of milky fluid to lorikeets, and craisins to lemurs. We pet kangaroos (who were surprisingly chill). Kato fell in love with the lorikeets and Augie with the guinea pigs. I’m guessing there will be another power point presentation in my future.
Afterward, we drove to Wichita and found a grocery store. The kids stayed in the bus to do their homework, and Robbi and I spent a few minutes strolling the aisles, totally alone except for the other hundred or so people in the store. It was the closest thing we’ve had to a date in a while. We were hungry and probably bought more food than we needed, including an inadvisable box of Peeps-flavored cereal.
Then we drove two hours to our next campsite, a lovely spot on the banks of a lake, where we parked and set up camp only to discover the bathrooms were locked for the “off season.” The “off season” ends in two days, but Robbi couldn’t wait that long. She scowled profoundly by the lakeside as I packed up the bus for departure. She consulted the Google and found a new park an hour down the road.
On this drive, I made a terrible error, opening my driver window at the wrong moment and creating a draft that blew my favorite lei from Hawaii out the window. I despaired, but Robbi did not. We turned around, found my lei, and rejoiced as the sun set.
Then we drove another hour to a new park where we poked around in the dark for a bathroom that worked. The first set of bathrooms we found was also locked, but we persisted and finally found a set with doors that actually opened. More rejoicing transpired.
Now we are parked and Dumbles is getting his frisk on. Robbi is making a salad, and soon we will all pile onto the mattress on the back and watch TV.
It’s good to be back in Kansas, where I lived from sixth grade through the end of high school. Stay tuned for blasts from my past.
#busloadofbooks
Good night from Coon Creek Cove in Newkirk, Oklahoma. Some days we wake up with a clear sense of what’s going to happen and other days we’re utterly surprised as weather shifts or opportunities present themselves.
Today was some of both. We spent much of the day at Olive Elementary, hosted by librarian Barbara Smythe. It’s a day we’ve been anticipating for 18 months, and it was just as fun as we’d hoped. We’ll tell you all about it soon.
What surprised us was what Barbara said as we were leaving. In addition to being a librarian, STEM teacher, and mother of four, she’s a volunteer firefighter and wondered if we might want to tour the fire station on our way out of town.
We nodded enthusiastically and Barbara called the chief to set up a tour. As it turns out, the chief was her husband Tim, who has recently taken over for his dad who had been chief for forty years prior.
Tim couldn’t have been more gracious or warm. He spent almost two hours showing us the various trucks, opening every compartment, demonstrating where the various hoses, ladders, tanks, and tools are stored and how they’re used. He let us sit in the cab, turned on the sirens, and gave us a demo of the heat sensors the firefighters use to find people or animals during a search and rescue.
All of the vehicles are customized to the specific needs of Tim’s community. In addition to two decommissioned military trucks Tim has converted into 2,500-gallon tankers, there’s a fleet of pickups set up to combat brush fires, which are the most common call for the Freedom Hill Station.
Tim showed us the office, the classroom where he runs trainings for firefighters from other towns, and the bank of lockers where the firefighters have their coats, pants, and boots carefully hung and folded for easy access at a moment’s notice.
I’d never known how much goes into setting up and running a fire station. It was incredible to hear someone so knowledgeable walk us through how everything works. Thank goodness there are people like Tim and Barbara willing to devote so much time and energy for the good of their communities. It was an honor to meet them both today.
#busloadofbooks