Review on 🚌 Battat School Vehicle for Toddlers: Engaging Educational Toy for 12+ Months by Eric Jackson

Like other reviewers, I am disappointed that only the driver remains seated. It's sometimes difficult for my child to get the door to stay closed, but I think they understand that now. My main complaint has more to do with the actual design of the kids and how they were packaged. The first thing that struck me right away was that the African American kids were sitting together (luckily in the front seat of the bus) and the white kids were sitting together. Subtle, unconscious and perhaps unintentional communication that does not mix people of different nationalities. Then I noticed that kids are made to do things that are pretty stereotypical for their ethnicity. A little African American girl has a skipping rope. White kids each have a ball and roller skates (who rides roller skates on a school bus? Guess safety rules and smarts don't apply?). Finally, while I applaud the African American boy who is made to carry a backpack and be hardworking, he is the only character who has a grin on his face instead of a smile. Why is? At least it's not a joke. Again, I don't know if this was intentional, but the message is there. Luckily my kid doesn't care and prefers to play with African American kids anyway (we're white/European). I know it's subtle that some people think I'm overreacting, but I'm willing to give the designers reason to doubt that it was unintentional (although that makes it sadder in a way, because it's an underlying underlying bias revealed), my son likes the toy and I'm not going to try to upset him, but if he asks what children do and why there are different expressions, I may need to start talking to him seriously about racism before I do.