All Aboard!

by Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Mike Lowery (Illustrator)

Overview

From the creators of What Can a Crane Pick Up? comes a train-ride adventure—perfect for fans of Thomas the Tank Engine and Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site.

In this inviting, rhyming read-aloud, two kids become travel buddies as they watch cities and landscapes and other hard-working trains rush by, and also observe the conductor and funny goings-on inside the train, all illustrated in a fresh, hip, colorful style. Hop aboard!

"The chugga-chugga beat and appealing anthropomorphized trains will charm young train-lovers in this entertaining title that’s a perfect fit for storytime."--Booklist

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780385754224
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	09/23/2014
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Lexile:	500L (what's this?)
File size:	24 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

REBECCA KAI DOTLICH is a poet and picture book author whose work has been featured in numerous magazines, anthologies, and textbooks. Her books have received a number of awards including the Golden Kite Honor and a Bank Street Children's Book of the Year. She has two grown children and four grandchildren and lives in Indiana with her husband. Visit her at RebeccaKaiDotlich.com.

MIKE LOWERY's work has been seen in galleries and publications internationally, and he is Professor of Illustration at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta. He is the illustrator of The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School (written by Laura Murray), Ribbit Rabbit (by Candace Ryan) and Dr. Proctor's Fart Powder (by Jo Nesbo). Mike lives in Atlanta with a lovely German frau named Katrin and his super-genius daughter, Allister. Visit him at ArgyleAcademy.com.

Editorial Reviews

08/18/2014
Dotlich and Lowery sang the praises of an oft-overlooked piece of machinery in What Can a Crane Pick Up? There’s significantly more competition out there for this companion title about train travel, but Dotlich’s buoyant rhymes and Lowery’s loose cartooning and manically drawn text supply plenty of personality. “Trains whistle through prairies,/ a long, steel sweep./ Through thunder and wind,/ they have schedules to keep,” reads one spread, as Lowery’s lightly anthropomorphized train whistles to itself under a dark sky—smiling down at the train is a single nonthreatening storm cloud, a bolt of yellow lighting dangling like a dog’s tail. It’s a lighthearted ode to the landscape trains traverse, the cargo they carry, and the joy of seeing the sights while riding the rails. Ages 2–5. Agent: Deborah Warren, East West Literary Agency. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

2014-08-13
Rhyming verse chugs along as two children ride a train on a long-distance trip. Across prairies and through ghost towns, up mountains and past cities, the train takes these two kids to summer camp. Dotlich's verse and meter are characteristically solid and humorous: "He tips his hat. / You step through the door. / A yap a yawn a burp a snore / There's people and people and people and…MORE!" But there's something meandering about this trip. The children board and look around, and then the text veers quickly into a catalog of cargo that doesn't happen to be on this particular train: foodstuffs, tractors, lumber, rocks and livestock. Alarmingly, a rooster falls out of the cattle car, never to be seen again. This is an exceptionally long train trip, judging from the terrain it traverses, but there is no sense of the passage of time. Lowery's thick-lined illustrations have a friendly, childlike look, but unfortunately, only Caucasian people seem to be riding this 21st-century train. Possibly the book's biggest liability, however, is the hand-lettered text, which makes reading aloud and tracking scansion something of a challenge on many spreads. There are many better train books available; point little engineers in their direction. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews