Gliding Through The Darkness

If you stand still, there is no sound outside tonight, not even the whisper of a north wind.  As soon as you move your breath is serenaded by the crunch of snow beneath your boots.  It's easy to believe in a special kind of magic on this evening in December.

If a long, low whistle sounds in the distance, you'll know passengers are traveling to a special place along the nearby rails.  Night Train, Night Train (Charlesbridge, October 9, 2018) written by Robert Burleigh with illustrations by Wendell Minor is about a similar journey where the everyday becomes marvelous and new.  Light and shadows cast a spell.

Train ride! Bump-bump.
Chug-chug. Slow.
Faster.  Faster.
Off we go.

A child looks out a train window as it leaves the station.  As it moves through the darkness all he can see is shades of gray.  Before too long the engine pulls the cars over a road, spots of red flash.

Through the countryside it goes.  Look!  A blue hue glows in a single window in a farmhouse gable.  Alabaster sparkles from a single star.  Color springs uninvited by the night but is nevertheless welcome.

Metal on metal flares into a familiar combination.  Along a busy highway a sign glimmers as it points toward a destination.  Water laps along a shoreline beneath a bridge.  Light beams from a full moon.

Speeding down the track the train streaks toward another station.  Inside on his seat the boy drifts into dreams.  Soon the shades of gray are banished by the rays of a rising sun.  A new day begins.


After reading the first set of four lines readers will feel the urge to read this book aloud.  Robert Burleigh takes the rhythm of riding on a train and incorporates it into each phrase, rhyming the second and fourth words.   In-between the introduction of nine colors amid those phrases, a repetition of the four-word title plus additional descriptors further defines the train and travel on this train.  Here are some passages.

Round. Yellow.
Mr. Moon.
Watching.  Whispering,
"Be there soon."

Night train, night train, beam-of-light train.


When you look to see the illustrator's name on the front of the opened dust jacket, you realize this is a departure from the usual work of this beloved artist.  After reading the book you can't imagine any other medium or style working as beautifully as the graphite on paper and digital choices of Wendell Minor.  The limited palette, gray, black, white, blue and yellow, on the front (right) of the dust jacket beckons to us.  To the left, on the back, the boy, holding his teddy bear is close to us as he gazes out the train window.  Red, white and blue are elements in this view, too.

A textured gray paper (cloth) covers the book case.  Along the bottom of the front a train track is embossed.  Above this in silver foil is the title of the book.  A soft charcoal is used for the opening endpapers.  On the closing endpapers a pale yellow announces the dawn.

Beneath the text on the title page the boy's suitcase is placed, covered in travel stickers.  His smiling teddy bear is seated next to it.  Opposite the verso and dedication page, which contains a thumbnail of the front of the dust jacket, is a wordless picture of the boy looking out the window.  His teddy bear sits next to him on the seat.  Light outlines them as it does other items throughout the book.

For each of the full page pictures a large border of white frames them.  This is followed by magnificent double-page illustrations spanning from page edge to page edge.  Wendell Minor elevates the mood of the narrative and its pacing by bringing us close to the scene or giving us a more panoramic view.  Sometimes the gutter and borders separate two pieces of a larger image.  The details, light and shading ask us to pause at each picture.

One of my many, many favorite pictures is nearly a bird's eye view of a small community along a river.  It spans two pages.  On the left older buildings, homes and a church with a tall spire nestle together.  The train speeds along the track at the bottom, left to right.  On the right the river stretches to the tree line and horizon.  It's starting to cross a bridge.  Wendell has added spots of colors already mentioned in the poem; an orange light in the church window, a blue shooting star, a red light on the right river bank, white stars, a purple glow in another building and black and gray.  (Every time a color is named the font is changed from white to that specific color.)


The mix of narrative and artwork creates a soothing, rhythmic feeling whenever you read Night Train, Night Train written by Robert Burleigh with illustrations by Wendell Minor.  To acquaint readers with colors and travel on a train, this title is a stunning choice.  It would be wonderful with a storytelling train theme, as a quiet time or drifting-off-to-dreamland bedtime book.  I love this book! (Wendell Minor talks about the locomotive in the pictures at the conclusion in an illustrator's note.)

If you want to learn more about Robert Burleigh or Wendell Minor and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images.  Wendell Minor maintains an account on Twitter.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like . . #3

Before automobiles and before airplanes, trains traveled from place to place carrying people and an assortment of goods and necessities.  Train stations in even the smallest communities were and are hubs and gathering places. Arrivals and departures present situations of mixed blessings. 

Train whistles in the distance conjures different memories for each being. In the case of The Christmas Tree Who Loved Trains (Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, September 18, 2018) written by Annie Silvestro (Bunny's Book Club) with illustrations by Paola Zakimi the sounds of trains are an occasion for celebration.  As the trains come and go, so too does supreme happiness.

A pine tree grew in the farthest corner of the tree farm.  She sat alone on a small patch of land that bordered the train track.

Nothing made this tree as elated as the trains passing by her home on the tree farm.  Her needles shivered in anticipation.  It was too loud for birds and squirrels to rest or scamper in her branches but as long as the trains whizzed past, she was content.

One day a boy who loved trains as much as the pine tree came to pick a tree for Christmas.  After a train hurtled past the child standing by the track, he noticed the lone evergreen seemed just as pleased as he was.  That was the tree for him.

Helping hands came to dig up the tree and wrap her roots in burlap.  The boy was thrilled but the tree could no longer hear trains or feel the wind they made wave her branches.  That night in the darkness of the room in which she was placed, sadness crept into her soul.

A day of decorating eased her sadness.

The tree fell asleep to the ringing of sleigh bells.

She slept so well, she missed sounds only heard one night during the year.  In the morning she was greeted with familiar noises.  A train on a track circled her branches.  Both boy and tree were filled with pure bliss.

Time passed quickly.  Now the little pine was worried and her branches were empty. She did not know the magic of Christmas remained and so did the love of a boy. 


Trains and Christmas equal wonderful surprises but author Annie Silvestro extends our thinking with the premise of a tree who loves trains as much as children (and some adults).  In this story we have a blend of narrative, spoken words of the boy and thoughts of the tree.  We are enchanted, connected and soothed with this technique.  Readers will repeat and join in with Annie's use of onomatopoeia.  Here is another passage.

He watched the track.
He waited.
Then . . . ZOOM!

His hair rippled in the wind as the train roared past.


Rendered in pencil and Adobe Photoshop the images, beginning with the opened and matching dust jacket and book case, are warm and welcoming.  Use of subtle color and fine lines add to the overall atmosphere of each illustration.  The stick in the boy's hand is for playing with his canine companion.

The scene on the front extends over the spine and to the left (back).  The track get larger shifting perspective.  The cloudy sky mixes with the early morning fog, softening the wooded landscape near the track. 

The color in the child's hat, somewhat deeper and darker, covers the opening and closing endpapers.  Beneath the text on the initial title page stands the little pine tree.  For the formal title page, a double-page picture features another angle of the boy watching the train.  His dog is seated next to him.  The author, illustrator and publisher names appear as part of the train track.

Illustrator Paola Zakimi alternates between full-page and double-page pictures.  Her shift in point-of-view gives us a feel for the tree farm, the place of the train within this setting and the importance of Christmas, the boy, the little pine tree and their love of trains.  We develop a strong emotional attachment to this story through her visual interpretation.

One of my many favorite pictures is when the boy first realizes the tree shares his love of trains.  In the lower, left-hand corner of the full-page illustration is a portion of the train track.  Early morning mist swirls around the track and portions of the tree farm.  Slightly off to the right of center is the little pine tree.  Next to her is the boy, his dog and his dad.  All of them feel the swoosh of the train as it passes.  At the top of the image rows of trees continue off the page. There is a sense of supreme joy in this visual.


You can nearly hear the clickety-clack of wheels on a track, the whistle announcing the train's arrival and the zoom as it passes you through the marvelous blend of words and pictures in The Christmas Tree Who Loved Trains written by Annie Silvestro with illustrations by Paola Zakimi.  Readers and listeners will take pleasure in participating in the sounds of the train.  You will definitely get requests for multiple readings.  For those who have given and received trains as Christmas gifts this book is a treasure. This title is recommended for your professional and personal book collections.

To discover more about Annie Silvestro and Paola Zakimi and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.  Annie was a guest writer during Storystorm 2018 at Tara Lazar's Writing for Kids (While Raising Them).  Both Annie and Paola have accounts on Twitter.  You can also find Annie and Paola on Instagram.

The Uncanny Express Blog Tour-A Conversation with Kara LaReau

Images copyright Jen Hill

Happy Monday morning, Kara.  It’s an honor to have you making a stop here at Librarian’s Quest on your blog tour for The Uncanny Express, the second title in your The Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters series.  It’s been absolutely bitter cold here in Michigan but on the bright side it’s a wonderful opportunity to get cozy wrapped in a blanket, sipping hot cider and leave the confines of a comfy chair through the pages of a book.  It’s been a distinct and happy pleasure to travel with the Bland Sisters, Jaundice and Kale, first with a band of swashbuckling pirates on The Jolly Regina and second with a group of passengers concealing their true identities aboard The Uncanny Express.

I was wondering if you could tell readers who have not read these two books a little bit about the title of the series.  Why are the adventures unintentional?  Why are the Bland Sisters bland?

Images copyright Jen Hill

A lot of it is just their nature — the Bland Sisters inherently shy away from any kind of excitement or emotional upheaval, but they’ve become even more set in their uninteresting ways since their parents left to run an errand of an unspecified nature. (They’ve been gone for some time now, but Jaundice and Kale don’t tend to think about it too much. They’re sure their parents will return any day now.) It becomes clearer in The Uncanny Express that their strict adherence to routine is one of the ways they cope with their parents’ absence. It’s the only control they have over their situation.

Of course, Bland Sisters want to stay in their comfort zone. So an adventure on a pirate ship, or even — gasp! — on a speeding train, is the last thing they want to experience. Or so they think.

Images copyright Jen Hill

In the beginning of each book two pages are dedicated to the cast of characters in each adventure.  As a high school senior and college student in the seventies, I laughed out loud at the name of one of the pirates, Captain Ann Tennille. Would you tell us about the process of naming your characters?

I’m glad you appreciated that one! Of course, most of the humor in the series is for kids, but I try to include a laugh or two for the adults who might be reading along with them.

I’ve always had a thing for names, perhaps because my own first and last names have given me so much trouble, especially when I was growing up; no one seemed to be able to spell or pronounce them correctly, perhaps because of all the vowels. (FYI, it’s KARE-uh la-ROW.) As a result, I make an extra effort to remember people’s names and how to pronounce them, and this has led to a focus on names in general. I’m particularly interested in words that almost sound like they could be first names — whenever I hear a good one I try to write it down. Most of the names in the Unintentional Adventures come from that running list, though if nothing on that list seems to fit, I try to think about the character’s personality and do my best to find a name that complements it. For instance, there’s a tweedy, wan, put-upon maid on the Uncanny Express, so of course her name is Vera Dreary — and then there’s the brilliant, not-terribly-humble detective, Hugo Fromage (which, for the uninitiated, is French for “big cheese.”) I’m sure you can tell I’ve had a LOT of fun with this!

Images copyright Jen Hill

Each chapter in The Uncanny Express starts with one of Tillie’s Tips and second with a message from Professor Magic’s Rules of Illusion. The tips and rules are really quite good. I particularly like this one:

The closest thing to feeling real magic is performing for people and helping them to experience the impossible.

Why did you decide to employ this technique?  

Images copyright Jen Hill

In the first book, The Jolly Regina, Kale brings along the Bland Sisters’ favorite (and only) reading material, their illustrated children’s dictionary, so the chapter heads in the story all feature dictionary definitions. That dictionary falls by the wayside — quite literally! — in the first book, but I really loved the way it worked and wanted to do something similar in The Uncanny Express. I thought it would be a nice way to show the Bland Sisters’ character development to have them toting around a pretty mundane book of housekeeping tips at the outset of the story, but venturing a bit outside of their literary comfort zone by the end. Also, just as each word defined in the chapter heads is a word used in that chapter in The Jolly Regina, the housekeeping tips and magical advice in the chapter heads of The Uncanny Express are always relevant to the action in each chapter. It’s an extra bit of fun for my readers, and it was a fun sort of challenge for me to work it all out.

As a fan of mystery and detective stories I couldn’t help but make the connect between the Bland Sisters’ trials and tribulations aboard this train and those experienced by characters in Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express.  Are you an Agatha Christie fan?  Do you have favorite mystery and detective titles or authors?

Oh, yes, I am a huuuuuge Christie fan, and a mystery fan in general. I grew up watching Masterpiece Mystery and started reading Agatha Christie from an early age. Just as The Jolly Regina takes place on a ship, I knew I wanted the second book to take place on a train, and since I’d already had so much fun with the tropes of classic pirate stories, I was eager to try my hand at a Christie parody/homage. Many of the mysteries I read now are all pretty adult — I love Gillian Flynn, Kate Atkinson, Tana French, and Ruth Ware, for instance. (Interestingly, all women. Hmm…) But I also recently read (and loved) Kristen Kittscher’s The Wig in the Window and The Tiara on the Terrace, I just finished The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street by Lindsay Currie, which was terrific, and I know Lauren Magaziner has a new choose-your-own-adventure-style mystery series called Case Closed launching this spring that I can’t wait to get my hands on.

Did you have to do any special research about magic and illusions prior to writing The Uncanny Express?  If so do you have a favorite resource?  (Students enjoy learning about magic and illusions.)

Images copyright Jen Hill

Yes, I always do tons of research. For The Uncanny Express, I read a great instructional book for kids called Big Magic for Little Hands by Joshua Jay. I also read a lot about the history of magic in books like Hiding the Elephant by Jim Steinmeyer, and I did online research on Adelaide Herrmann, the real-life Queen of Magic, on whom Magique in The Uncanny Express is based. (There is now an excellent picture book biography about her called Anything But Ordinary Addie by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Iacopo Bruno.)

Images copyright Jen Hill

And of course, I read and re-read Murder on the Orient Express and other Hercule Poirot mysteries. In addition, I watched every episode of the Poirot mystery series and took copious notes, and I read David Suchet’s memoir about playing the great detective, called Poirot and Me (Suchet was committed to playing Poirot exactly as Christie wrote him, so I appreciated his insights).

The portions of the plot when Kale and Jaundice are dreaming add tension and intrigue to the story.  When and why did you decide to include these in The Uncanny Express?

I tend to have very vivid dreams, so I’ve always been interested in dreaming and how our subconscious takes over while we’re sleeping. Jaundice and Kale are so reticent in their waking life, but there’s quite a bit bubbling beneath the surface. It seemed right that their dreams would be pretty telling. Also, dreams continue to play a part in the third book in the series, though I don’t want to give too much more away!

As a writer you have a gift in bringing the characters to life using somewhat quirky traits.  Are the characters fully developed before the plot begins or do their personalities grow as the story progresses when you are writing?

Images copyright Jen Hill

I create character profiles before I start writing, especially for this series, where there are so many characters in each story, and I really need to feel like I have some semblance of control. But they still end up surprising me! For instance, Countess Goudenoff didn’t have a dog at first, but the line “The tea spilled, all over my Chrysanthemum” came to me, and I realized, of course she would have a yappy little lap dog, and of course it would be named Chrysanthemum! Those moments when the story takes on a life of its own are so exciting.

As I was reading both The Jolly Regina and The Uncanny Express I found myself placing sticky notes at bits of life wisdom you weave into the stories.  The final sentence in the first book makes reference to a letter.  Is this why you have the sisters’ parents communicating with them through letters?

Well, given the distance between them, their parents can only communicate with them through letters (at this point, at least). Though all that might change, sooner rather than later!

Although these stories are totally absurd, it’s important that they also have some kind of emotional resonance so the reader can feel invested. Just as the Bland Sisters are learning (however slowly and obliviously!) from their experiences, I hope my audience might be taking something away from the stories, too.

Continuing with this train of thought I enjoyed what Magique says to the Bland Sisters:

I told you that the mind is our most powerful tool.  And that if we use it often and well, it will tell us many things and show us many secrets. . . .”

In addition to the adventure, action, magic and mystery what else do you hope readers will take away from reading about the Bland Sisters and The Uncanny Express?

Among other things, Magique and Hugo Fromage encourage the Bland Sisters to be present and observant, and how important it is to go through life with your eyes and ears open. That piece of advice is also extremely relevant to me as a writer. In that way, I’m a bit of a magician and detective, too!

I think I’ll end with twelve questions.  I know the Bland Sisters would appreciate the fact the number is divisible by three.  I wish you safe travels as you continue your journey on this tour.  I can hardly wait to step into another exciting episode in the lives of these two girls.

Thank you so much — your questions were so thoughtful, and so much fun to consider and answer!

Kara LaReau was born and raised in Connecticut. She received her Masters in Fine Arts in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts and later worked as an editor at Candlewick Press and at Scholastic Press. She is the author of picture books such as UGLY FISH, illustrated by Scott Magoon, and NO SLURPING, NO BURPING! A Tale of Table Manners, illustrated by Lorelay Bove; an award-winning chapter book series called The Infamous Ratsos, illustrated by Matt Myers; and a middle-grade trilogy called The Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters, illustrated by Jen Hill. Kara lives in Providence, Rhode Island with her husband and son and their cat.

THE UNCANNY EXPRESS

BLOG TOUR

1/9   The Little Crooked Cottage

1/10 MG Book Village

1/11 Mrs. Knott's Book Nook

1/12 YAYOMG!

1/15 Librarian's Quest

1/16 Storymamas

1/17 All The Wonders

1/18 Project Mayhem

1/21 Nerdy Book Club

No Rest On The Rails

The tracks are miles away from my home but not so far I can't hear the whistle blow as it speeds by a crossing late at night.  As I stand and stroll in my backyard with my canine companion listening to the sound, memories stir.  A little girl is putting together the tracks so her new train set can run around the Christmas tree, counting the cars between the mighty engine and the caboose as she waits in the back seat of her parent's green Chevrolet, sitting on the seat of a small train taking her through the local zoo or a jungle filled with parrots in Florida.  A young woman is gripping the arm rests as a train climbs through mountains in Canada. As an adult a woman visits the bustling city of Chicago for the first time traveling by train into the famous and now ninety-two year old Union Station.

There never seems to be a time of day when a train is not moving along the tracks, destination known.  Trains Don't Sleep (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, May 2, 2017) written by Andria Warmflash Rosenbaum with illustrations by Deirdre Gill is a soothing, sensory journey with trains designed for a variety of functions.  It's a tribute to this fabulous form of transportation.

Trains are humming, coming near.
Coupled cars from front to rear.
Rumbling, grumbling, screech and squeal,
Rolling, trolling wheels on steel.

Through the night the train zooms, never slowing.  As the light of morning breaks over the horizon, a train pulls into a country station before making another stop in a city rimmed with tall buildings.  The large windows and comfy seats welcome passengers.

On another parallel track, a locomotive pulls cars of different shapes and sizes.  Each one with a particular purpose.  It's certainly fun to know, they sometimes carry other vehicles that perform special tasks when they get to go.

These trains travel over all types of terrain using bridges, trestles and tunnels to reach a place.  In all kinds of weather they push forward, never wavering from their goal.  What's this we see chugging past?

Its cars are carrying precious cargo destined to bring cheer to audiences near...and far.  Animals, performers and crew have exceptional assignments to do.  Trains leave.  Trains go.  The day is done, evening descends.  They meet together at their travels' ends.


When the narrative written by Andria Warmflash Rosenbaum comes to a close readers will feel as if they have rambled across the tracks with these trains, dawn to dark.  The gentle rocking felt as a passenger, the click-clacking heard as trains pass, the hiss heard when trains to life or heard when they screech to a halt or the sight of each train, car contents known and unknown, these things all contribute to our connection to this manner of moving from one point to another point.  At the end of every two lines, gathered by two or four, rhyming words whisper the cadence of wheels on tracks.  Andria Warmflash Rosenbaum creates a memorable melody for her readers.  Here are sample passages.

Trains don't sleep---
They CLANG and HOOT,
Reaching stations on their route.

Quiet town to noisy city,
Looming large and strong and gritty.


Rendered in oil on paper the illustrations beginning with the matching dust jacket and book case are a pictorial homage to trains.  The arched bridge stretches across the spine to the left, on the back.  The forest beneath the expanse is shown in various deep green hues as the sky blooms in the dying light of day, a full moon rising in the sky as stars begin to show.  Speed and resolve are conveyed in the lines and angles of the train.  Notice the formation of the text letters.  On the opening and closing endpapers one of the darkest shades in the sky covers the space.

In the glow of an engine light the words appear on the informal title page as the trains shown in the story are named.  A glorious night scene of the train moving down a hill toward the station, windows bright with a pale golden shimmer, spans the verso and title pages.  With each page turn an image extends from page edge to page edge.

The pictures are stunning through the use of light and shadow by Deirdre Gill.  Wild and domestic animals are shown when appropriate as the trains race and rumble through cities, towns, country, forests and mountains.  Deirdre shifts her point of view drawing readers deeply into each scene, a train passing through tall grasses with cows grazing, standing on a station waiting for the arrival of a train, two passengers watching the city fade as the train moves, or an engine breaking through piles of snow in a darkening storm.  Each visual can stand alone but flawlessly becomes part of the wonderful whole as the hours pass.

One of my many favorite illustrations is when the freight train, Engine106, is trudging through the snow.  You can almost hear the sound of the wind and the ferocity of the storm as the drifts grow deeper on the tracks.  The contrast of the dark engine, snow and gray sky supplies a perfect mood.  You'll find yourself reaching for a sweater or a blanket.


Trains Don't Sleep written by Andria Warmflash Rosenbaum with illustrations by Deirdre Gill is like a lullaby taking us through a day and closing with the promise of another new day.  Through a blend of words and illustrations we experience trains in three distinct capacities.  Be sure to read this aloud whether one-on-one or with a group.  I would pair this with Train (Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., September 24, 2013) written and illustrated by Elisha Cooper,  Locomotive (A Richard Jackson Book, Atheneum Book for Young Readers, September 3, 2013) written and illustrated by Brian Floca, How to Train a Train (Candlewick Press, September 24, 2013) written by Jason Carter Eaton with illustrations by John Rocco or Steam Train, Dream Train (Chronicle Books, April 16, 2013) by Sherri Duskey Rinker with illustrations by Tom Lichtenheld.

To discover more about author Andria Warmflash Rosenbaum and illustrator Deirdre Gill please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites. Andria is interviewed at GotInterviews, Picture Books Help Kids Soar and KidLit 411.  At Lauri Fortino's Frog On A (B)log you can find an interview with Deirdre Gill.

On The Tracks

If someone were to tell me the only way to get somewhere is by train, I would be thrilled.  To be able to sit in a seat watching the cities and landscape coast by the window, reading or resting is my idea of the best way to travel.  Over the years almost all of my journeys by train have been memorable in a good way.

When lines of track were originally being laid to connect eastern parts of the country with the west, the passenger cars were considerable different than they are today; not only due to modern conveniences.  The variances in decor, comfort level and amenities afforded people based upon class were striking. When I learned Kenneth Oppel's newest title, The Boundless (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, April 22, 2014), bore the name of a train in which most of the action takes place, I was more than willing to heed the call of the whistle.

Three hours before the avalanche hits, William Everett is sitting on an upturned crate, waiting for his father.

Will has not seen his father, James Everett a builder of the Canadian Pacific Railway, for three years.  While waiting to meet the train bearing him and a host of other workers, one of Will's sketchbooks draws the attention of a circus performer about Will's age.  The girl is an aerialist with a dream to become the world's most famous escape artist.  When a small train from the opposite direction, pulling some rather elaborate cars, appears she disappears.

On that train is none other than Cornelius Van Horne,

general manager, engineer, visionary---slave driver, some call him, according to Will's dad.

As luck would have it, Will is invited to travel with Van Horne and the other gentlemen joining in the celebration of driving in the last spike, a spike of solid gold with diamonds spelling the name Craigellachie.  An avalanche, encounters with sasquatches, threats from the evil Brogan, a thief with no qualms about taking a life if necessary, the saving of the gold spike and Van Horne, change James Everett's and William Everett's lives in ways they could never have imagined.  Chapter one ends with you having to remind yourself to breathe.

Three years later James and Will are boarding The Boundless, an immense train with 987 cars, pulled by a steam engine with a three-story boiler and 6,495 people as passengers.  It is her maiden voyage traveling from the east to the west.  One of the cars is a funeral car, loaded with treasures and secrets and carrying the body of Cornelius Van Horne.  It is his wish to always travel with The Boundless back and forth across the country.  Only two people have a key to unlock its hidden door, the guard and James Everett.

Will is astounded at the opulence of the first-class stateroom in which he will be traveling as his father is to serve as one of the engineers.  His desire to find an earlier acquaintance (remember the aerialist) will have Will running to catch the caboose at the train's end and wondering from one minute to the next when a cold-blooded killer will find him.  Will is the sole witness to a murder and everyone's lives on The Boundless depend on him reaching his father miles ahead in the locomotive.

Mr. Dorian, ringmaster of the Zirkus Dante circus cars numbering over eighty, Maren, escape artist and aerialist, and Will have a plan.  Chapter by chapter, class by class, and train car by train car, they and their plan move forward with more twists and turns than the train makes through the Canadian wilderness.  Legends come alive in the great north and other legends are pursued as death makes its presence known.  A conclusion as gripping as the opening chapter and all the pages in between will have you shaking your head as if awakening from a dream.


There is urgency in the writing of Kenneth Oppel with the telling of this story.  Acts of nature are told with such vivid clarity you will find yourself swimming alongside new acquaintances as they try to survive an avalanche.  Single sentences provide instant glimpses into the depths of peoples' hearts; either good or evil.  Conversations between the cast of characters fully flesh out individual personalities.  You can't help but feel empathy or disgust, sadness or elation or fear.

Just enough detail of the train, inside and outside, is supplied to convey you into the array of miniature worlds within each car.  Each of these worlds, the circus, the colonists, the third class, the second class, the first class, the caboose, the brakemen, the porters and the engine emerge from the pages surrounding you as the tale progresses.  Whether within the train itself, on top of the train or in-between the cars as it races along the tracks or near the train in a small town or in the eerie muskeg each scene is described in mesmerizing detail.

Here are several passages from the book.

He looks at the track, gleaming as though it has just been set down.  Will imagines his father helping lay those long measures of steel.  He follows the track west, where it's quickly swallowed up by dense, snow-cloaked forest.  His eyes lift to the towering mountains---like the very world has raised its gnarled fists to keep you out.  How could you cut a road through such wilds?  Clouds graze the icy peaks, painting restless shadows across the furrowed slopes of rock and snow.

Twigs crackle.  A lantern handle creaks.  Will thinks he can hear Brogan breathing; he imagines his lantern in one hand and the knife in the other.  Abruptly the light goes out, and Will almost gasps.  For a few agonizing moments he is completely blind, completely helpless.  Silence.  He needs to breathe but waits for retreating footsteps that don't come.  He knows Brogan is just standing there in the darkness, waiting and listening.

"You were rash in the colonist cars," Mr. Dorian tells him quietly.  "You've revealed more than you should have."
Will wondered if he'd be reprimanded. "I'm sorry.  But it was terrible, what Peters was doing.  Why doesn't Sam Steele put a stop to it?"
"The Mounties don't patrol the colonist cars," Mr. Dorian says.  "They're left to sort out their own affairs."
"I'll talk to my father about it," says Will.  "They're too crammed back there.  Cattle are treated better."
"I agree with Will," Maren says. "It's not fair."
"Many things aren't fair," says Mr. Dorian placidly---but for the first time, Will realizes there's anger beneath this unnerving calm of his. "My father's people came from France to claim this land.  Then the English came and took it from the French.  Later the Americans tried to take it from the English.  As a Metis I've seen my people shunted and shamed.  I'm not numb to the hardship of these new colonists.  But they are, after all, just another group of Europeans come to take land that once belonged only to the Natives."


This book, The Boundless written by Kenneth Oppel, has enough action and adventure to make you feel like a coiled spring.  It's spun through the history of railroad development in Canada while parting the curtain to bring creatures of legend to life.  Once started you won't be able to do another thing until you've finished it.  I do know this to be true; I've read it twice.

To discover more about Kenneth Oppel and this title please follow the link embedded in his name to access the pages at his website dedicated to The Boundless.  This link takes you to his blog where numerous entries talk about specific aspects of the train and the characters.   Here is a link to a curriculum guide.  At the publisher's website several pages can be read.

Chugga-Chugga---Calling All Trains!

Perennial favorite portions of nonfiction sections are "how-to" books.  Students gravitate toward those titles on drawing, cartooning, cooking, origami, seasonal celebrations and making paper airplanes.  Most of the volumes in the pet shelves are borrowed for a good part of the year; taking care of goldfish, hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, spiders, frogs, snakes and turtles is of interest to many guys and gals.  One of the most popular areas is learning about cats and dogs;  curiosity for this grows year after year.

There has been a glaring void in one significant area.  For those who have read every single title having to do with anything and everything about trains, nothing, to their dismay, has been written about pet trains.  Pet trains?!  Yes, this little known but highly desired subject has finally with great imagination and in-depth information been addressed.  How to Train a Train (Candlewick Press, September 24, 2013) written by Jason Carter Eaton with illustrations by John Rocco is a manual guaranteed to go straight to the center of  your readers' hearts.

So you want a pet train? Well, of course you do!
Trains make awesome pets---they're fun, playful, and extremely useful.

To start you need to decide which kind of train you would like for your constant companion.  When this decision has been reached, a variety of methods, including the best, for tracking and trapping this monster in motion are offered.  Most paramount is knowing the proper way to get and keep their attention.

Of equal importance is whether they are as immediately attached to you as you are to them. Great thought should be given to your new train's name.  We all know the power in a name.

As the newest member of your family, the train might need extra attention to feel comfortable in its new home; a soothing soak, bedtime stories and a lullaby.  Time, lots of time, is needed to understand your train's likes and dislikes.  What are its favorite games or fears?  Can it learn to do tricks?

As much as you would like to have your train with you every minute of the day, there are times when this is not such a good idea.  You still need to provide social opportunities, the means for meeting new friends, for your train.  When all is said and done, when you least expect it, your train will show you, the only way it can, just how happy it really is.


Every single page in this guidebook is filled with fun, fueled by the inventiveness of author Jason Carter Eaton.  The narrator, speaking directly to the reader, leads us with simple statements toward the ultimate goal of having a loving pet train in our home.  Every possible concern is addressed with a wonderful kind of wit.  It's as if Eaton's inner child is fully alive and well.  Here are a couple of examples.

Freight trains live in the countryside and travel in herds. 

By now your train should trust you enough
to let you ride him...
but he may not trust you enough to ride in the engineer's car yet.
Start off in the caboose.


How can you not want to read a book with a jacket and cover like this?  It makes you want to head out to the nearest spot frequented by trains to experience the same joy as the three children riding their pet trains.  Opening the cover and turning the endpapers, gives readers a sneak peek at the book's narrator, a guide in safari hat and clothes, on top of a locomotive, bucking like a bronco.   The double-page title page showcases three different trains at rest inside a roundhouse.

Rendered in graphite with digital coloring, the animated illustrations of John Roco interpret the narrative with rip-roaring playfulness.  His double page, single page and smaller illustrations framed in white, compel readers to keep turning the pages as surely as the text does.  We want to see what Jason Carter Eaton has to say and how John Rocco will visualize it.

You have to appreciate the shifts in perspective; the close-up of the guide on the first two pages, holding a leash with a "Fido" tag at the top, large locomotive wheels in the background or the panoramic view of the western desert as the guide sends up smoke signals to attract a train's notice.  The personalities given to each train, their "facial" features, are impeccable.  Two of my favorite illustrations are of the boy with his teddy bear sitting on the train's cow-catcher reading a book by the train's headlamp and the three boy's playing a train song to help a new friend drift off to dreamland. The boys are playing country instruments, a banjo, a washboard and a jug.  These are absolutely charming.


I'm not sure how many readers want a pet train but I can guarantee after reading How to Train a Train written by Jason Carter Eaton with illustrations by John Rocco, you might be seeing trains showing up on children's wish lists.  Give this book to readers who love trains.  Give this book to readers who love pets.  Give this book to readers who love good storytelling, a picture book with text and pictures working together in faultless harmony.

Please follow the link embedded in John Rocco's name above to his website.  Here is a link to the publisher's website for a Q & A With Illustrator John Rocco.  This links to A Note From Author Jason Carter Eaton at Candlewick Press.  Check out this interview at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

Enjoy the book trailer, then make sure to have this book handy for reading.

 

Pair this title with Brian Floca's Locomotive and Elisha Cooper's Train.

All Aboard!

The memory of riding a train for the first time is like riding a two-wheeler bike for the first time; it's memorable, not to be forgotten.  I'm not talking about the miniature versions at county fairs or festivals which as a child you thought were grander than grand or even the larger models for tourists at parks.  No, I'm talking about those trains which as an adult are so large you feel dwarfed by their size and power.

I, for one, have been fascinated by trains as far back as I can remember.  My train set was never a toy but represented the magic of transportation, the marvel and promise of new sights to see, new people to meet.  To this day it is my favorite way to get from one place to another.  Elisha Cooper has written and illustrated a new title, Train (Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., September 24, 2013), which captures the magic, marvel and promise of trains.

The train leaves in minutes.  Passengers buy tickets and rush across to where the train is humming on its tracks.  Conductors look up the platform.  They check their watches.

With those four sentences we readers find ourselves in that very station.  We are among the waiting passengers or perhaps, we are the one who runs to get on the train as it leaves.  Journeying from one town to the next, watching the sights of one city blend into those of another, we are heading toward a daily destination on a Commuter Train.  When it makes a stop, pausing, another engine and cars whiz by us.

Journeying longer distances find travelers seated on a Passenger Train. An engineer works the controls as we shift and sway in our seats.  Different sounds are heard as the cars go by a railroad crossing.  Our senses detect the shift as the train enters the station.  Here the people bear the trappings of suitcases and bags, intending to stay wherever they might be going.

Unbeknownst to them in the rail yard another train is getting ready to make a delivery, a Freight Train. Car after car loaded with food and goods essential to the lives of people are hooked to the engine.  Many times the number of cars makes it necessary for more than one engine to pull.  Do you remember as a child (and even as an adult) counting the cars on freight trains as they pass through town, moving so slowly because of their load?

Winding it's way across one state into the next, the Freight Train is passed by another. People enjoy meals in the dining car and get cozy in the sleeping car, dreaming as the Overnight Train speeds on through the moonlit night.   As the new day dawns, the High-Speed Train streaks by toward the city, as the eager passengers reach the end of their trip.


While it's not easy, I read Train several times focusing on the text alone.  Elisha Cooper states in the Author's Note at the book's end, he rode many trains in preparation for writing and illustrating this book.  He describes the experience with splendid accuracy, noting what one might hear, smell and see with exemplary word choices and pacing.  His depiction of the train at the railroad crossing is perfect...yes...perfect.  Even if you've never been on a train he conveys it so well, you will feel as if you've recently taken a trip.  Here are a couple of examples of sensory passages.

The train clatters past ball fields and bridges, past backyards and ponds. Main streets flash by.  The view changes very second.

The Passenger Train crawls over the tracks through a jungle of gravel, wires, and dirt.  Everything smells of grease and rust and burnt toast.


When the watercolor and pencil artwork used in the illustrations is paired with the text, Elisha Cooper's book, Train elevates to masterful.  The open jacket, two pages including the flaps, features all of the trains on tracks near or next to one another with glimpses of the countryside and cityscapes along the right and left edges.  The color palette used here is continued throughout the book with the emphasis on earth tones.  The dusty, red solid cover provides the background for a cream-colored outline diagram of Engine 212.  Looking like sky, the blue opening endpapers show a single white train track, the closing endpapers a beautiful blend of tracks flowing into one another against the same blue.

The three pages which frame the narrative at the beginning with the two title pages and the page opposite the publication information at the back are patterned with Elisha Cooper's people.  All kinds of people are pictured; young to old, from all walks of life, in a train station.  His ability to convey so much with a single brush stroke takes my breath away.

Within the body of the book, some of his double page illustrations will highlight people or animals in a large white space along the bottom edge; railroad personnel, flying herons.  Or as in the case of the Commuter Train he visualizes the train at the top of two pages while highlighting the inside filled with passengers at the bottom.  Cooper places illustrations on an edge crossing the gutter, one above the other.  Smaller illustrations fill single pages.

His details, worker badges, buildings, bridges, train numbers, flags on the trains, tiny, sketchy labels on the train items or parts of animals make the reader feel like they are being given an inside peek at an artist's personal journal.  As the trains carry people and goods, we are carried with these illustrations along every mile.  One of my favorite pages is with three small vignettes of two girls getting ready for bed, sitting on their bunks as the overhead light shines on them, one reading, the other with her teddy bear and the final of the two looking out at the moon, curtain pulled back with the light from outside coming inside.


While Homer will always have a special place in my heart after reading Train written and illustrated by Elisha Cooper, I felt a deep yearning for travel begin to grow.  Not only will you want to start planning your next trip, but this astonishing book will make you want to take that journey by train.  I should know, the Amtrak website is currently open in my browser.  Thank you Elisha Cooper for another stunning title.

In addition to the Author's Note, a small glossary is included.  Please follow the link to Elisha Cooper's website embedded in his name above.

UPDATE:  Be sure to head over to Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast to read about the process Elisha Cooper used to create this beautiful, memorable book.