Ride the rails of the night train in this beautifully rendered journey conducted by renowned artist Wendell Minor and frequent collaborator Robert Burleigh.
Robert Burleigh is the award-winning author of more than forty
books for children, including Look Up! Henrietta Leavitt,
Pioneering Woman Astronomer and Hit the Road, Jack. Robert has
collaborated with Wendell Minor on Night Flight- Amelia Earhart
Crosses the Atlantic , Abraham Lincoln Comes Home, If You Spent a
Day with Thoreau at Walden Pond, and Into the Woods- John James
Audubon Lives His Dream.
Wendell Minor has designed more than two thousand book covers and
written and/or illustrated more than fifty children's books,
including many in collaboration with Jean Craighead George. Recent
titles include Trapped!, How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow?, and If
You Were a Panda Bear.Wendell has collaborated with Rob Burleigh on
Night Flight- Amelia Earhart Crosses the Atlantic , Abraham Lincoln
Comes Home, If You Spent a Day with Thoreau at Walden Pond, and
Into the Woods- John James Audubon Lives His Dream.
A passenger train travels to the city overnight in this rhyming
picture book. On a wordless opening page, a young rider, seated
near their teddy, looks out the window as the train travels in the
dark. The train (pulled by a Dreyfuss Hudson steam locomotive)
takes off, and then rhythmic words chug along: "Train ride! /
Bump-bump. / Chug-chug. Slow. / Faster. Faster. / Off we go." The
following double-page spread introduces the refrain: "Night train,
night train, hold-on-tight train." Burleigh replicates the initial
meter on the next page as the rider takes in their surroundings. As
with the other verses, the refrain changes slightly along with the
scenery. The visual structure—two full-page panels bordered by
white followed by a double-page spread—repeats in sync with the
rhythm of the text. Together, the words and pictures help this
train run smoothly. One by one, isolated colors (black, red, blue,
etc.) pop into the night world, highlighted in the color of the
type that spells out the color's name and in some feature in the
illustration. Some of the instances of color are quite subtle (for
instance, the text's "big blue window" is actually quite small, as
it's viewed from a distance), but, at the same time, such details
add to the value of the nightscape. Minor's black-and-white
graphite illustrations intimately capture the shadows and shapes of
the train's night ride, ending in a beautiful full-color
double-page spread as night turns to day and the ride is completed,
the child and their mother, both white, alighting on the platform.
A nostalgic, Depression-era nocturne for train lovers.
—Kirkus Reviews
A young boy clutching his teddy bear hops aboard the “Night-train,
night-train, hold-on-tight train” to ride a train snaking into the
darkness of the countryside. He watches the colors as they pass by:
red for the stoplights and switches, blue for a window, white for a
star, yellow for the moon, and orange for sparks. Rhyming text
announces the “into-morning-bright train” as the last two wordless
double-page spreads show the colorful city and a happy welcome from
Mom. The realistic illustrations highlight the awardwinning Minor’s
ability as he depicts the black night morphing into gray and then
dawn and bright sunlight. A footnote explains his desire to depict
accurately the Dreyfuss Hudson locomotive, the last of a generation
of steam engines of the 1930s and ’40s. The soft pencil drawings
complement the poetic writing as the passing sights blur with the
rapid train: “Can’t stop. Can’t stay. Night train, night train,
wish-I-might train.” It’s a perfect story for all train-lovers and
a nostalgic nod to those who love the magic of the rails.
—Booklist
A young boy happily travels alone through the night on a steam
locomotive in the early to mid 1900s. He is excited by all that he
sees, hears, and feels—the black sky filled with white stars, the
clanging and dinging of wheels and bells, and the speed of the
fast-moving train. There is much to stimulate the senses, and the
trip is full of wonder and delight. This rhyming picture book for
young children is soothing and cadenced. The lyrical stanzas are
short and succinct and printed in a large bold font that
accentuates color words. The illustrations, done in graphite with
colorful accents added digitally, perfectly set the mood for the
midnight journey. The warm colors of the sunrise will envelop
readers. Young children who are fascinated with trains will
absolutely love this book and ask to read it again and again. The
illustrator’s brief note about the Dreyfuss Hudson locomotive at
the end is a perfect finishing touch. VERDICT A dreamy, lyrical
picture book for young train enthusiasts.
—School Library Journal
In chalky grayscale art with occasional splashes of color, a steam
train from the 1930s and ‘40s (identified by Minor as a Dreyfuss
Hudson locomotive) rolls along through the night while a boy with a
teddy bear watches from the train windows. Burleigh describes the
sights, writing in a gentle rhythm that mimics the locomotive’s
soothing chug: “A barn. A house/ against the sky./ Big blue window/
like an eye.” Illustrations show a bird’s-eye perspective of the
train (two Canada geese fly far above) as well as views of the
train emerging from a tunnel, passing stations, and riding over
bridges. Finally, the boy and the bear peer out the window onto a
hazy, dawn-lit cityscape. Wendell’s evocative scenes capture the
nostalgia of train travel and the thrill of a nighttime
journey.
—Publishers Weekly
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