Locomotive

Breathtakingly beautiful, effortlessly informative, and intensely engaging, Brian Floca's Locomotive is a work of picture-book history that deserves all the accolades that it has won, from the Caldecott Medal it received for the artwork, to the Robert F. Sibert Honor it was awarded for content. The story of the building of the transcontinental railroad, which was built east from the Pacific coast by the Central Pacific Railroad Company, and built west from Omaha by the Union Pacific Railroad, its main text imagines the very first journey undertaken by rail passengers, after the line met at Promontory Summit in 1869, and the line was completed.

The poetic text here builds the sense of excitement that passengers would have felt, taking show more that historic journey, and captures the changing beauty of the various landscapes through which they would have passed. The artwork captures the hot and backbreaking work that went into both building and running such a rail line. The decorative endpapers, and an extensive afterword give more information, providing maps (in the case of endpapers), and more details about how the railroad impacted native peoples. I really appreciated the fact that Locomotive was a celebration of an important achievement in American history, one that had a huge impact on our development as a nation, but that the "not so nice" bits of that history were also included, for those wanting more in-depth information. All in all, I really enjoyed this one, and think it would make an excellent introduction to the topic of the railroads in American history, and how the transcontinental railroad changed the face of the nation and the course of history. show less

Brian Floca takes the reader on an immersive journey from Omaha to Sacramento on America's first transcontinental railroad. It reads as verse, with playful language full of onomatopoeia for a fully engaging experience. Detailed illustrations give readers a lot to look at and contemplate. Learn more about the history and creation of the railroad on the front and back covers, as well as the author's note, which also discusses the enormous and irreversible changes the railroad had on the nation, including the Native tribes whose lands it bisected.

If easy, nonfiction read-alouds are some of the hardest children's books to write (and I think they are) then historical subjects have to be the hardest to tackle. Young children don't have any context for historical events or figures, most of which are oriented to adult concerns and ideas. I was skeptical about this book, although it features a train, since it tackles a complicated era in history (what historical era isn't complicated?) and I haven't always been a fan of Floca's watercolors in the past.

I am won over, proved wrong, and in awe. Brian Floca has written a book that will appeal not only to the youngest of train fans, but also to history buffs, both young and old.

The history of the railroad is framed around a journey a woman show more and two children take, going west on the train. As they travel, information about the building of the railroad, the various people who worked on the railroads and trains and the mechanical operation of the train itself are all woven into the journey.

The book is written in flowing free verse, separated into chunks of text. The text is further separated by the watercolors sprinkled throughout the book, scenes of railroad stops, gazelles racing the trains, explosions, and the wild landscape that the train races through. You can pick and choose sections to read aloud to the youngest children, while they ooh and aah over the train-filled landscapes or read the book at one sitting with an older listener, especially one who can sit still for a long time. Independent readers will want to pore over the text and illustrations themselves, especially the history-rich endpapers, with information closely packed together. The book ends with a lengthy author's note and extensive sources.

Verdict: This is a beautifully illustrated and accessible story of the building and growth of the railroad. It will be appreciated by both children and adults and find a wide audience. Highly recommended.

ISBN: 9781416994152; Published 2013 by Atheneum/Simon & Schuster; Borrowed from another library in my consortium; Purchased for the library show less

This was a book that I was hoping that I would love, but it just ended up not being a favorite.

What I had a hard time with was the text. It is pretty text heavy and has A TON of information on the old railroads and locomotives. I think if you were to sit down and read every word on all the pages (which would take some time) you would know basically everything there was to know about the railroads of the Old West. This book covers everything from how the railroad tracks were made, how the engines ran, what the stations were like, the routes, what people did on the trains, train wrecks..EVERYTHING.

I could see how an older student--late elementary school--who loved trains would love this book. One can get lost in it. There is just soooo show more much! But, to me, the text didn't have any flow to it. It was all over the page, lengthy, and the sentence fluency just didn't do a lot for me.

However, I think this book is beautifully illustrated!! And I actually love the layout. The pictures within a picture, and the different size fonts for the various onomatopoeia words. This book relishes in all the sounds and noises that come from a train. The words for the noises are in many different sizes, in many different beautiful fonts...all of which is very eye catching for the reader. I really loved this part of it! The pictures themselves were large and detailed. There were many things to "check out" before turning the page.

In all, this is a great, great book for children that love trains and have a good attention span. There is so much to be gained from it! It would be good to use as part of a lesson where you want to use onomatopoeia in your writing to add descriptive detail. You could read select pages from this book aloud with students and talk about what the effect that writing about the sounds has on the reader. Then you could have students incorporate sounds into their own writing. show less

Skilled, attentive, historically interesting train book for kids. If you like trains, and in particular the early transcontinental railroad, then this is a tremendous kids book. I'm not a trains person, but I can recognize something special.

Locomotive, a Caldecott-winning picture book written and illustrated by Brian Floca, is a beautiful product. Slightly oversized, the book contains detailed paintings of historical trains and the places they passed through from Nebraska to California. The muted colors fit well with conveying the idea of times past, but there are also illustrations that convey the speed and joy of the journey. Fanciful lettering allows certain words to jump from the page, looking beautiful while engaging the reader's attention.

The story itself is both slight and meaty. It is slight in that the characters are not named or given much by way of a story. All you know is that they are travelling from one place to another in the coach class of a steam show more locomotive during the summer of 1869, right after the first transcontinental railroad was built. But then the text is also meaty in terms of providing historical details and lots of information on how the railway was built and how the train itself runs. We see how the train stops at various places and switches engines, and the mechanics that must be in place for the train to continue to run along to its destination without any problems. This is a little bit where the book loses it for me. While I appreciate all the fun historical tidbits, I wasn't necessarily enamored of learning all about the pistons, rods, boilers, etc. that make the steam train successfully run. I admit that I found these parts a little bit dull. However, that being said, I think for children (and adults) who are big train aficionados, this book is sure to be a hit precisely because it does contain all those details. The book ends with a lengthy note describing even more details about steam locomotives during this time frame.

Locomotive is billed as a book for ages 4 to 10, probably based on it being a picture book. However, I think it unlikely that you'd find many 4-year-olds with the attention span needed for the level of detail and sheer length of this book. This book seems best suited for children ages 7 to 10, those who might think that are getting too old for picture books -- but who will be pleasantly surprised by how much they will learn from and enjoy this book. show less

Travel west on the Transcontinental Railroad c. 1869 and learn all about trains and railroads and what traveling on them was really like. The comprehensive perspective and detail of this picture book are impressive, with beautiful illustrations that keep you engaged. Fair warning, this is quite a long book to read! By the end, you might be feeling like you’ve traversed the whole country by train car. Nevertheless, this feels like THE definitive picture book on trains.