Train

Starred review from August 12, 2013
Riding the rails from New York City to San Francisco takes on an expansive definition when Cooper (Farm) sounds the “All aboard,” bringing readers on five kinds of trains (commuter, passenger, freight, overnight, and high-speed). To move this transcontinental journey along, Cooper mostly eschews the boarding and exiting process (although he does use a stop in Chicago to portray the soaring neoclassic grandeur of a city station). Instead, he transports his audience from one train to the next as they pass (“As the Commuter Train waits, another train roars past on another track.... A bright blue Passenger Train hurrying between cities”). Cooper’s signature sun-bleached watercolors beautifully convey human achievements and nature’s grandeur through both detail and a range of scale, whether it’s an entire train passing through a rural landscape on a starry night, the control panel in the engineer’s cab, or a comparatively tiny elk. Like Brian Floca’s Locomotive, also out this month, this is more than a tribute to a mode of transport: it’s also a valentine to the sweep of American geography and, in particular, the glory of the Great Plains. Ages 4–8.

Starred review from August 15, 2013
Who can watch a train race by without longing to be on it? This delightful picture book delivers the literal and figurative rush of cross-country rail travel as it tracks a variety of trains, beginning with a New York commuter line and ending with a high-speed train pulling into a California terminal. Along the way, readers are treated to descriptions of the whizzing thrills of long-distance trains, including the sights, sounds and even aromas that passengers encounter inside and outside the cars. Thanks to clever narrative pacing and handsome design, children are invited to hop on for the ride. Punchy, clipped sentences, often enlivened with evocative onomatopoeic words, enhance the sense of movement. The text on the right-hand page of each spread ends in ellipses that demand rapid page turns, heightening the feel of forward momentum. The book's rectangular shape suggests a railroad car's appearance while also providing the illustrator ample space in which to present sweeping, panoramic views of ever-changing scenery and busy stations. The loose watercolor-and-pencil artwork hums with activity and energy; a nighttime scene is dramatic and beautiful. Cooper reminds readers of the anticipatory, ephemeral nature of rail travel by repeating the phrase "Passengers off, passengers on" and gracefully transitioning from train to train both visually and in the text. Kids will be all aboard for this one. (glossary, author's note) (Picture book. 4-8)

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Starred review from August 1, 2013

PreS-Gr 2-Starting at a city terminal, Cooper takes readers on a commuter train that clatters out of a metropolis. At a suburban stop, the perspective shifts to a larger passenger train traveling between cities, jumps to a freight train slowly creeping across the Great Plains, then an overnight train, and finally a sleek high-speed train. The artist's characteristic muted watercolor and pencil illustrations are sketchlike yet very detailed. Transitions between busy cityscapes and serene panoramic vistas, outsides of stations and insides of train cars, and the refrain of "passengers off, passengers on" perfectly capture the feeling of riding the rails. No "choo-choo" noises here-"As the train leaves, it sounds like the da dum da dum of a beating heart. Then silence." Through the richness of the prose, not only the sounds but also the smells of the trains come to life-"grease and rust and burnt toast." As the author's note reveals, Cooper mixed many real-life details with a few fictional ones, such as a futuristic San Francisco depot at the end of the story. The longer text and somewhat stylized illustrations make the book most suitable for a one-on-one perusal with sophisticated young train aficionados but it is a wonderful foray into the "train books" category and a distinguished addition to most collections.-Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, formerly at Chappaqua Library, NY

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2013
Grades K-3 *Starred Review* Cooper (Homer, 2012) follows several trains going about their daily routine in this exhilarating glimpse of life on the rails. There's the red-striped Commuter Train pulling out of the station, heading out of the concrete jungle into town after town; as the Commuter Train waits at a station, a larger Passenger Train whooshes past, shuttling passengers between cities; at the rail yard next to Grand Central Station, a Freight Train loads its cargo and sloooowly pulls away; this train ambles past ( As if the train and the clouds were having a race to see which go slower ) an Overnight Train switchbacking westward to climb the Rocky Mountains; finally, there's the High-Speed Train, shaped like a bullet, its sleek nose pointing toward a city skyline. Throughout, there are Passengers on, passengers off. Cooper's languid, rolling language works well with the looseness of the watercolors, which offer spectacular views of trains as seen from a distance as well as interior close-ups of levers and dials. Each new train is introduced dramatically after a page turn, and details of train living, like sleeping and eating on an overnight car, should thrill the intended audience. The front and back matter depict many different people rushing to and fro, and a glossary and a facts section, along with a brief author's note, conclude. A poetic, beautifully conceived bookit has the right amount of pomp and circumstance to make train travel sound just a little bit glamorous.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)