Train Song

This is a favorite picture book at our house. I like the rhythm of the text:

"cars with lumber
cars with cattle
clickety-clacking
to Seattle."

The inclusion of "big" words (locomotives, aristocrats, destinations, disappearing)
and onomatopoeia ( rumbling, creaking, clanking, squeal, wail) make it fun to read aloud.

The paintings by Mike Wimmer, showing trains and train stations from different perspectives (an old fashioned waiting room, through a screen door, from track level) make the book a pleasure to look at too. It's a feast for the ears and the eyes.

An illustrated poem. The poem is rather too simple for me. The illustrations are good, but a bit muddy. The freight trains are blurry with the heat. The train station is a small town station, brick and very tidy. The passengers board a tall, long haul train, with sleeper cars. The conductor carries a fob watch and wears the old round Amtrak cap, he seems very avuncular. The ties that bind the tracks and recede into the distance are treated wood, not concrete. On the last page, a caboose at the end of a freight train disappears around a bend.

"Train Song" by Diane Siebert was first published as a poem in Cricket Magazine. Nine years later, Mike Wimmer's wonderful realistic illustrations were added when the poem was made into a rhythmic book. Many students will probably begin swaying back and forth as they read the "song" of modern trains' transcontinental journeys...("Through the tunnel/ going fast/ clickety-clack/ she's roaring past/ the cities, suburbs, little towns/ past forest greens and desert browns.") Since California fourth graders usually learn about the building of the 1860's Transcontinental Railroad, this is a nice companion book because it informs the reader about the trains of today. Perhaps trains are not the phenemona they once were, but for many children, show more they still hold a real fascination. show less

Here is the song of the train. Listen as it rushes past big cities and small towns. Listen as it sweeps through forests and fields and into tunnels. Hear the whistle wailing, brakes squealing, wheels rolling, r-o-l-l-i-n-g, stop. Now the train is homeward bound. All aboard! Notable Children's Books of 1991 (ALA)

The short rhyming story describes different trains across America. The beautiful illustrations make up for a somewhat boring and anti-climatic story. However, it would be a good book for young children who are interested in trains.

Children’s Picture Book Review

Siebert, Diane. Train Song. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 1993.

Characters: Trains

Setting: Railroads across the United States

Theme: Rhymes; Trains

Genre: Children’s Fiction

Golden quotes: “head conductor dressed in black peering up and down the track checks his watch now hear him shout: “ ALL ABOARD’’ she’s pulling out! Through the tunnel going fast clickety-clack she’s roaring past the cities, suburbs, little towns past forest green and desert browns”
Summary: The trains go in different directions to different places like the countryside, forest greens, and desserts, showing the contrast of the fast life of the big metropolitan cities and suburbs to the quietness of little show more towns. It shows the way trains drive around mountains and go into tunnels.
Audience: 2 year olds to 5 year olds

Curriculum ties: Learning the sounds of words that rhyme (word structures), U.S geography

Personal response: This book would be great for children in Preschool to learn the sounds of certain letters together they learn that words rhyme and continue to see the pattern until they learn it. Since this book show the train that goes through different cities and places of the Unites States it can also be used to show the difference in life style between the city and country side. show less

Great story for young reader.