The Big Ideas of Buster Bickles

The Big Ideas of Buster Bickles written and illustrated by Dave Wasson (2015)

No one seems to appreciate Buster Bickles’ big ideas except his Uncle Roswell. Uncle Roswell has invented a What-If Machine which can turn any idea into reality, but Uncle Roswell doesn’t have any big ideas to test his machine. Enter Buster Bickles, the little boy with big ideas. What if… they were invisible, or had tiny heads, or traveled by rocket-powered cow? All pretty good ideas to start with, but then Buster has some gigantic ideas! What if… the world were made of ice cream and robot dinosaurs filled their neighborhood? Yikes! Things get out of control fast! Somehow the What-If Machine drifts off into space leaving them with a huge mess. When it looks like things couldn’t get any worse, Buster wonders what would happen if he suddenly had a very looooooong arm and he reached all the way out into outer space and turned off the What-If Machine. Now Uncle Roswell owes Buster a huge favor so they bring the What-If Machine to school for show and tell. Now Buster is a hero with BIG IDEAS!

What if you had your own What-If Machine? When my kids were younger, they probably would have imagine an unlimited supply of lego blocks (one of them still might), or a real life adventure with He-Man, and I’m sure there’d be a giant pink Barbie castle in my backyard which would be home not only to all of the Barbies but also all the Rainbow Bears and all the My Little Ponies because all is better than some. What will your child imagine?

Look what I found on Pinterest! Looks a lot like the What-If Machine in the story but it involves a sharp razor cutter and a hot glue gun to build. I bet you could make your own What-If Machine without so much engineering, maybe a simple cardboard box and markers would work. 

And if they learned anything at all from Buster Bickles, they might only wish for simple things… a popsicle, an extra bedtime story, a baby dragon – oh wait!