Alphabet Trains

September 7, 2015
In a companion to 2013’s Alphabet Trucks, Vamos and O’Rourke introduce 26 trains as they proceed from A to Z. They make room for general categories like bullet trains and coal trains, as well as location-specific conveyances—like the Xplorer of New South Wales, Australia, and the Q train of New York City’s subway system, taking care of a couple tricky letters in the process. Vamos’s rhymes are as sturdy as the trains she discusses (“I is for incline train,/ a steep, uphill track./ J is for Jupiter,/ with a wide balloon stack”), while O’Rourke sneaks numerous upper- and lower-case letters into his cheerful digital illustrations, which all but beg to be pointed out by kids as the pages turn. Ages 3–7. Author’s agent: Jennifer Rofé, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Illustrator’s agent: Emily Mitchell, Wernick & Pratt Agency.

August 1, 2015

PreS-Gr 1-A cheerful rhyming text and painterly illustrations created in Adobe Photoshop offer young readers a different train for each letter of the alphabet. The simple language is straightforward without letting the rhyme become cloying: "G is for Glacier Express, /a scenic, alpine glide./H is for Hurricane Turn./Wave a flag to catch a ride." Each train is featured on its own page, allowing the page turns to reveal the next type of train. The book concludes with a spread with factual information on each of the trains depicted, further enhancing the book's appeal to train enthusiasts. VERDICT Pair this with Donald Crews's Freight Train (Greenwillow, 1978) and Margaret Wise Brown's Two Little Trains (HarperCollins, 2001) illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon, for a high-speed storytime.-Lisa Kropp, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2015
Almost every kind of vehicle has been alphabetized in a picture book. This companion to Alphabet Trucks (2013) chugs along, depending on rhyming text to identify the type and purpose of 26 trains. The opening verse sets the scene: "tear the ticket. / Load the freight. / Sound the whistle. / Raise the gate." The book proceeds to present the 26 trains, two to a double-page spread from A to Z, and too few take advantage of the layout to create interesting visual juxtapositions. One spread, in which an elevated train travels on tracks supported by uppercase E's as a freight train passes below, loaded down with both capital and lowercase F's, is a pleasingly fanciful exception. While some of the train choices are logical, such as bullet trains, narrow-gauge trains, and snowplow trains, many more are a stretch, relying on specific route or train names and even, in one case (Alaska's Hurricane Turn), an actual stop, to make up the alphabet. The Leonardo Express, which takes passengers from Rome's airport to the city, the Xplorer train, which links Sydney to Canberra in Australia, and the Yellow Train, which travels through the Pyrenees, are examples of these. The legend in the back cites the origin of each one, a mix of historical and current trains, such as the Jupiter, which was part of the Golden Spike ceremony in Utah in 1869. The Photoshop illustrations ineffectively employ perspective, so people and scenes are flat in appearance and the trains, blockish in style. All in all, this alphabet book lacks steam. (Alphabet picture book. 4-7)

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