Short Bus by Jonathan Mooney, Essay Example

A Review, Summary and Book Talk

Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal (Chapters 1-5) will be analyzed for the purpose of this book report. It tells a story of a disabled child who went through stereotype discriminations and prejudices of which he overcame to graduate from Brown University in Literature and came to write the very book I am reporting about.

Conner and Mooney stood peering at the bus as Conner noted to Mooney that he would not want to live in that short bus for four months. Conner was only a four year old, nephew to Mooney who was interested in Buzz Light-year thus Mooney would not let his childish viewpoint influence his destiny to travel from Los Angeles through the southern states to Maine, across the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains, across the Great Plains, over the Rocky Mountains down Highway 101 then back home to Los Angeles. Besides he was planning on proposing to Margo with the $5 dollar ring he purchased on E-bay. Mooney’s plan is to propose at the landscaped area of their first stop in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Mooney and his girlfriend Becky were behind schedule which would put them late visiting their second client, a school-aged boy who reminded Mooney of himself. Becky decided to drive after a decent night’s sleep at a shabby motel. The two had some problems with the bus which were tended to in town then they were on their way. Kent was very happy to see Mooney. He had been having issues at school with kids calling him names, teachers thinking he was crazy and just improper handling of his disability. Kent even put illegal stickers on the payphones at school stating they were monitored by the Homeland Security in hopes that it would keep the normal kids away from them and keep his conversations private.

Mooney was astounded by the positive mindset that Kent possessed with regards to his illness. Kent has never lost the kid play nature in himself and this was accomplished through accentuating his positives and taking the negatives he possessed such as lack of concentration and making them humorous—taking attention or focus away from them. Kent had learned to accept his weaknesses in life but put them aside and focus on his strengths which is what Mooney had done to accomplish his degree from Brown University and to get to the successful point he is at now in literature and speech.

Works Cited

Mooney, Jonathon. The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal. New York: NY MacMillan, 2008