How to Train a Train
By Jason Carter Eaton
Illustrated by John Rocco
Candlewick Press. $16.99. (Ages 4-8)
So you want a pet train? Well, of course you do! Trains make awesome pets – they’re fun, playful, and extremely useful. Lucky for you, this handy guidebook contains everything you need to know to choose, track, and train your very own train.
Ready? Then let’s head out and find some trains!”
Thus begins this amusing picture book that walks the reader through catching and training the sometimes hard to catch train. First, you’ll find pictures showing different types of train so you’ll know which one you’d like for a pet.
Then there are detailed instructions on how to capture a train. The best method is to use smoke signals and chunks of coal which will help you attract and capture a wild train. (That’s providing you are hunting for a steam engine!)
Once you get your train home, it is time to clean it up, give it a name, and begin training it. If your train is a bit nervous about its new surroundings, try reading it a story or playing some music for it. Once your train trusts you, it is time to teach it some tricks and then trying riding it. It is best to begin in the caboose and then carefully work your way to the engineer’s seat up front.
“Congratulations! You’ve given your train fuel, water, a good home, and plenty of friendship and fun – everything it needs to be happy.”
The big, bold, colorful illustrations in this picture book are as much fun as the text. Any child who loves trains will want to read this book at story time. So… all aboard!
And the Cars Go …
By William Bee
Candlewick Press. $15.99 (Ages 2-5)
The first picture that greets you when you open this book is a motorcycle policeman about to begin his patrol. “Vrooom vroom vroom!”. He’s on his way down the road.
Oops, what’s this? There seems to be a traffic jam. What’s backing up all these vehicles? There’s a family in their station wagon heading off to the beach, the Duke and the Duchess out for a drive in their Rolls-Royce and a busload of students.
Goodness, there’s even a red, race car sitting there revving its engine right behind an ice cream truck, a beach buggy and a big street sweeper.
Is the sweeper the problem? Not really. There’s something sitting on the road so the machine can’t get past.
What’s blocking the road and how the policeman deals with the situation will be explained when you read this funny book. Be sure to pay close attention to all the pictures because they are quite intricate and have lots of interesting detail.
Locomotive
By Brian Floca
Atheneum/Simon & Schuster. $17.99 (Ages 4-10)
All aboard for this trip on the Transcontinental Railroad. It is the summer of 1869 and you’ll start your journey in Omaha, Nebraska. You’ll be in a coach pulled by a vintage steam engine and along the way you’ll see how the engineer and the rest of the train crew handle their jobs.
After crossing the vast prairie where buffalo and Indians live, you’ll pass through communities like Grand Island, Cheyenne, Fort Bridger and Ogden.
Then after passing Promontory Summit where the golden spike connected the western and eastern divisions of the line, you’ll chug out onto the flat and desolate Great Basin.
Awaiting you on the other side is the last great obstacle in your path, the Sierra Nevada mountain range. An extra engine or two will be needed to get over Donner Pass and you’ll find snow sheds in the higher elevations to protect the train from the winter snow.
When you reach Sacramento, you’ll see the other passengers leave the train and take other transportation to the cities in California that they are traveling to.
Beautifully illustrated with end covers that feature a large map and a diagram of how a steam engine works, this well designed picture book recaptures the trip west by train. Combining western history with early steam engine travel, “Locomotive” operates on a number of levels and is an excellent read.
Planes Fly!
By George Ella Lyon
Illustrated by Mike Wiggins
Atheneum. $17.99 (Ages4-8)
Any child fascinated by airplanes will enjoy paging through this picture book that features different types of airplanes. The rhymed text begins, “Planes have engines, planes have wings lifted by the air that sings.”
Next are a few early bi-planes and tri-planes as well as a streamlined jet.
Besides picturing various types of flying machines, the author also takes the young reader into the cockpit of a passenger jet and up to the tower where planes are controlled as they arrive or depart at the airport.
Seaplanes, firefighting bombers and the president’s plane, Air Force One, are also pictured along with the interior of a big passenger plane and people saying good-bye to the aircraft’s captain as they deplane.
Crossing
By Philip Booth
Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline
Candlewick. $6.99 (Ages 5-9)
As a child I can remember “reading box cars” with my grandfather as we sat near a rail line and watched freight trains pass. Those memories resurfaced as I looked through this nostalgic book. Philip Booth’s vintage poem captures the old days as a steam engine pulling a string of cars chugs past a crossing in a small town.
The small child at the crossing is urged to “count the cars” as the train passes. There are B & M, Erie, Wabash, Seaboard and U.P. boxcars, a Frisco gondola, a Pennsy tank car, and a Santa Fe cattle car, plus a Rock Island flatcar loaded with pipe and a string of coal hoppers.
As the small, red caboose rolls into sight, the total is just under 100 hundred cars, which means it was a pretty long wait at the crossing. No matter, though, everyone has had fun counting and identifying all the different cars and railroad insignias.
This prize-winning picture book has become a railroad classic. If you don’t have a copy already, this inexpensive soft cover edition would be a great way of introducing your child or grandchild to the joys of train spotting!