The Last Train

A treasure for train enthusiasts.

"If you close your eyes and listen, / you can almost hear the sound/ Of those big iron horses/ rolling into town." Based on musician Titcomb's 2005 song, this stunning book both celebrates and eulogizes the golden era of railway travel. Minor's luminous, occasionally almost photographic, paintings portray the adult narrator as a boy, surrounded by a ghostly haze as he walks along the tracks. Without the upbeat strings and tempo of Titcomb's song, his words take on a wistful tone: "My Granddad was a railroad man, / he drove the trains around, / My Daddy, he sold tickets/ till they closed the station down." Whether young readers will respond to the elegiac quality of the verse, there's little doubt that railroad aficionados will pore over the crisply rendered railroad memorabilia—stamps, posters, photographs, a ticket punch—and the gleaming images of the locomotives themselves. Effectively evoking the sounds and rhythms of train travel, the lyrics call to mind Steve Goodman's 1970 song "City of New Orleans," recorded famously by Arlo Guthrie, who contributes a foreword to this affectionate and nostalgic tribute. Ages 3-8. (Sept.)

Copyright 2010 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission

PreS-Gr 3--The mystique surrounding the iron horse still tugs at the imaginations and yearnings of young and old, and folk musician Titcomb taps that magic in lyrics that comprise the text for this book. Easy-to-read rhymed couplets capture the sights and sounds of the powerful beast. The song opens at a small town's boarded-up station; a boy recalls his grandfather, who drove the train, and his father, who sold tickets. Especially meaningful is an "Old cigar box filled with memories, /my boyhood souvenirs, /The watch they gave my Daddy/when he'd put in twenty years." Minor, whose panoramic watercolors supported the solemnity of the rail journey in Robert Burleigh's Abraham Lincoln Comes Home (Henry Holt, 2008), is here able to offer playful touches in concert with the majestic. Close-ups of pennies flattened on the tracks and authentic memorabilia, such as the sleeping kitten from an advertisement for the Chesapeake and Ohio, mingle with the monumental and somewhat surreal: a frontal view of a puffing engine, through which, on closer inspection, the lights of a town can be seen. Minor's transparent touch conjures a convincing memory. With a list of railroad museum websites and train musings in an introduction by Arlo Guthrie and an endnote by the author, this book offers a loving ode to trains and avenues to pursue when the last page has been turned.--Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

"[The Last Train] is going to please every last train lover out there, and I'll be putting it in my Christmas shopping bag for more than one person this upcoming holiday season." —Betsy Bird, New York Public Library

"The Last Train is going to please every last train lover out there....It mixes together both drama and nostalgia, but in a good way, in the ultimate train tribute." —Elizabeth Bird, A Fuse #8 Production blog