By Eric Christiansen

The hot streak continues.
After starting the season with an 0-5 record, the Southwood Knights are on a six-game, dominating, winning streak that includes a sectional championship, and now a regional title, after defeating Blue River Valley Saturday, March 11.

A Tiger basket midway through the first quarter cut the Manchester lead to 9-8 but the Squires scored 15 of the next 16 points to take a 24-9 lead and it was never close the rest of the way.
The high-scoring Squires hit 15 three-pointers on the night including five from Gavin Marin and three from Tyler McLain.

Imogene Knight watches as children prepare to board the bus at Manchester Elementary School. Photo by David Fenker

By David Fenker

NORTH MANCHESTER — After more than 30 years and more than one million miles of driving a school bus, Imogene Knight has added one more experience to her long list: helping to write a children’s book.

The Manchester Community Schools (MCS) transportation director recently finished an 18-month collaboration with New York City-based children’s author Kate McMullan on a book titled “I’m Smart”, the ninth book in a series that anthropomorphizes large vehicles (and two dinosaurs) to teach children about their role in society.

“[McMullan] chose five bus drivers – or people associated with school buses – over the nation, because school bus laws are different in every state. But, there are some that are the same, and the reason that she collaborated with so many drivers was because she wanted to put in the book the laws that are the same in all states. She did a very good job of that,” Knight said.

One of the laws that is discussed in the book is the stop arm law.

“She really, really zoned in on the stop arm law. That’s very important; I wish everybody would read this book. It says, ‘The amber lights come on first, and the cars and trucks slow down. When the red lights flash, flash, flash, everybody stops and they don’t move until I quit flashing,’” Knight said, reading from the book.

“She devotes about six pages to that, so she really hits that hard. I told her that’s probably our biggest problem in our community, making sure those children are safe when the school bus stops and they get on or off the bus.”

Another question McMullan asked Knight was how she kept the children quiet and entertained during the bus ride.

“I told her that you build relationships with the children… When I drove the bus, I had a survey. Not every day, but every once in a while, I would say, ‘Let’s take a survey.’ I didn’t do it while I was driving the bus, but I did it when I was stopped. Kids that are engaged do not act up. They are kept busy; they have something to do,” Knight said.

“I’d ask the kids how many of them had their own bedroom, or a brother or sister, how many of them had a June birthday, how many owned pets… she used that.”

McMullan’s fictional bus entertains the children with a pop quiz when they come across a construction zone that stops traffic, using many of the questions Knight used to ask her bus riders.

MCS Media Specialist Bethany Hall introduced Knight and McMullan.

“Mrs. McMullan is a friend of mine that I met while working to set up author Skype events with my students when I taught second grade. Since that point, she helped us kick-off the MCS Reading initiative in 2015.  She was our first Read It Global author and has since served as a key player to help coordinate authors to write for Read It Global,” Hall said.

“Kate posted her desire to learn more about the in’s and out’s of being a school bus driver on Facebook. I emailed her and told her that our transportation director is not only an accomplished bus driver, but also a remarkable story teller and the two of them would work fantastically together.”

Throughout the 18-month process of writing, editing, printing and distributing, Knight and Hall were given the chance to provide feedback on the new book.

“There were a lot of emails, a lot of phone interviews back and forth with this book. She put all of us in that helped her, from the beginning all the way to the end of the book,” Knight said.

“She asked me, ‘What would the bus look like?’ and I said it would wear a smile. She asked me why, and I said ‘Because they’re transporting children, and they’re very happy to be a part of education. It’s a big job.”

Even Hall’s second grade students were invited to participate.

“My second grade classroom, at the time, for the 2015-2016 school year, was also interviewed during Kate’s writing process.  She asked the students, ‘What is your favorite part about riding a school bus?’” Hall said.

“The students responded that their favorite part was when they went over bumps. She then used their idea to form one of her favorite pages in the book.  The double page includes a group of students, on the bus, going over a bump.”

Knight said that she has read all of the books in this series, because McMullan sent autographed copies of each book to Knight’s grandchildren, as well as an audiobook and DVD of one.

“I love this book, but my other favorite book out of this series is ‘I’m Cool,’ about a Zamboni,” Knight said.

“I did not know how a Zamboni worked. I do now, because she tells exactly how all these machines work, and the roles they play in the communities where they work.”

The other books in the series depict a garbage truck, a backhoe loader, a tyrannosaurus rex, a fire truck, a sauropod, a tugboat and a train. McMullan’s husband Jim serves as the illustrator for this series. McMullan’s books can be found in the Manchester Elementary School and Manchester Intermediate School libraries.