Train Song

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2-Simple rhymed couplets accompany pictures of a little boy playing on a hill with his toy train while watching a real train (with a conductor that looks just like him) wind through the hills and valleys before him. "Chug-a-chug-chug and clickety-clack-/Steam is white and the engine's black." The train goes across bridges, through tunnels, past a station, and disappears into the distance, but the boy knows that, "Tomorrow when it's almost ten,/Freight train will be back again." Saaf's gouache illustrations are childlike and straightforward; the colorful double-page spreads are bordered in a wide band of white with text printed in bold black at the bottom. The book should not be confused with Diane Siebert's book of the same title (Crowell, 1990), which is more sophisticated in text and aimed at a slightly older audience. Ziefert's title will be received eagerly by young train enthusiasts. A natural for preschool storytime.Judith Constantinides, formerly at East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
A little boy stands on a hill as a freight train travels through the valley below. Waving at the engineer, the boy watches each car as it goes by, carrying logs, pigs, ducks, cows, and the like. As the train pulls out of sight, the child reflects that "Tomorrow when it's almost ten, / Freight train will be back again." The same steady rhythm chugs through the book, telling the story in rhymed couplets. Large in scale and naive in style, Saaf's gouache paintings illustrate the text with becoming directness and simplicity. An homage to the fascination many young children feel for trains, this picture book will find a ready audience. Carolyn Phelan


Card catalog description
A young boy watches a freight train go by on its daily run.


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As a little boy in a red plaid jacket plays in a meadow with his own small toy train, he stops to watch and wave at a real train passing by. "Chug-a-chug-chug and clickety-clack..../ Freight train must be coming back." The real train, however, with its cargo of smiling cows, pigs, and various fowl, also looks like a toy train, and the engineer looks much like the little boy. The repetitive, rhyming text will appeal to beginning readers, and there are numerous opportunities for counting (3 cows, 16 fowl, the numbers of cars, and so forth). The book also reinforces concepts of distance, size, perspective, and time, as the train approaches, is seen up-close, and then grows small--smaller than the boy and his toy train--as it heads out of sight around a distant hill. Pair this with Anastasia's Suen's Window Music (1998) for a train-themed story time for young children. 2000, Orchard Books, Ages 3 to 6, $14.95. Reviewer: Linnea Hendrickson


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