I Dream of Trains

by Angela Johnson and Loren Long (Illustrator)

Book Overview

The poignant words of two-time Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Angela Johnson and striking images from fine artist Loren Long join forces in this heartbreaking yet uplifting picture book about a boy, his love for trains, and his adulation of one legendary engineer.

Papa says
it's the sound of leaving
that speaks to my soul...

A young black boy toils all day long on a cotton field where his one escape is...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689826095
• ISBN13: 9780689826092
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 9.7" x 11.5"
• Age Range: 5 to 7 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 2

Customer Reviews

Every moment I'm awake, I live another life

As long as I am allowed to walk this good green earth, I shall never fail to be continually, constantly amazed at how fond little children are of train books. What is to account for this? Can television shows like, "Thomas the Tank Engine" really sway such vast chunks of the child population, or are shows of that type simply made in response to kids' demands for more train-based entertainment? I have no idea. In any case, as a children's librarian I get so many requests for train books that I've gone so far as to type out a list of all the train-related materials my library currently owns. And on that list is Angela Johnson's, "I Dream of Trains". A classier offering than your usual engine fare, Johnson's book gives us a bit of historical fiction couched in a believable, well-written story. Such attention gives this book an edge over the mindless choo-choo books already out there. In this tale, a young male sharecropper dreams of trains. Caught in an existence that demands that he break his back picking cotton for hours each day, the boy spends what little free time he has walking the railroad tracks and thinking of the great conductor Casey Jones and his black fireman Sim Webb. For the boy, his imagination allows him to travel with Casey and leave far behind the land of his youth. Then, one day, he hears that Casey was involved in a terrible train accident. His hero collided head on with another train. When the boy asks his father if that means everything is over, the man replies, "No, there'll be other trains and engines", and he tells the boy about the vast nation out there. And his son knows that one day he'll take a train far from here and go out to find his place, "in the big wide world". In her Afterword, Johnson notes that much of this book is based on historical fact. For many sharecroppers toiling away in the South, trains represented a real escape from a live of drudgery and pain. Perhaps Johnson gives herself a little too much freedom in assuming that the idea of the Great Migration came to them after watching Casey's engine, but you don't really mind it. For many adults reading this note, there's no denying that Ms. Johnson did her homework when she set out to write a meaningful train tale. The illustrations are something as well. Loren Long, an illustrator who's work tends to grace periodicals mostly, employs some mighty fine acrylics here. The machines drawn are truly the trains of dreams. They're impossibly huge and swift. They move over rich multi-layered landscapes and are truly beautiful. The close-up of the narrator, wiping his neck in the field while his eyes gaze dreamily into the distance, is a wondrous picture in and of itself. In the end, "I Dream of Trains" is a hopeful book. It could have easily come off as a work in which someone spends all their time dreaming and none of their time doing, but this potential pitfall is easily averted. Lovely to look at with a strong historical backgroun

Poignant story with stunning artwork

This story is such a wonderful book for any train-lover. Beautifully written, it is a sad, sweet tale of a boy's dreams of Casey Jones and the railroad. The illustrations are absolutely fantastic. I am a huge fan of Loren Long, the illustrator. His style is dramatic and amazing, and the art work actually makes you feel the words written on the pages. I loved this book.