A majestic, streamlined locomotive sweeps into the pages of this striking picture book and a little boy climbs aboard for a nighttime journey. Through the countryside and on to the city, passing farms and houses and trucks on the highway, the journey is seen through the wide-open eyes of a child taking his first train trip.
This book has beautiful illustrations and rhythmic, rhyming prose. There's some hiding cats in a few of the pages that my kids had fun looking for, and we also interrupted the story here and there to make train sounds.
The story was sweet, but the rhyming scheme did not work very well. In several places, it felt forced and clunky. This is one of those cases when I wished the editor had told the author to scrap the rhyming and just tell the story. Curiously, I think the text would have ended up being more poetic if the author had been granted that freedom.
I cannot, however, fault the illustrations at all. They are beautiful, atmospheric, and evocative. THEY are poetic.
This is a soothing read for young train fans. The illustrations are gorgeous and the real highlight of the book. The text is a little awkward in places but children will love how it takes them on a journey too.
Short poetry, really short. It was good, and the illustrations are so rich and deep, but the text is for the beginning reader. I was expecting something longer beforehand, but this was nice for a younger audience.