Steam Train, Dream Train

by Sherri Duskey Rinker, Tom Lichtenheld (Illustrator)

Overview

From the team behind the #1 New York Times bestseller Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site comes the train book kids have been dreaming of!

The dream train pulls into the station, and one by one the train cars are loaded: polar bears pack the reefer car with ice cream, elephants fill the tanker cars with paints, tortoises stock the auto rack with race cars, bouncy kangaroos stuff the hopper car with balls. Sweet, silly dreams and happy smiles before sleep are guaranteed for Thomas the Train book fans any budding train enthusiasts!

• Introduce your child to new animals and experiences with this ideal children's bedtime book
• A great read-aloud book for kids or early reader book for kids beginning to read on their own
• Features beautiful art and words from an award-winning writer and illustrator team

If you loved Mighty, Mighty Construction Site and Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site, this book will be the ideal addition to your children's book set and is perfect for:

• Readers of first story books for baby or toddlers or bedtime stories for the whole family
• Read-along children's book or next step up from board books for early readers
• Boys and girls who love imaginative stories about things like trains, trucks, cars, dinosaurs, and little critters
• Fans of Sandra Boynton, Richard Scarry, Nancy Tillman, and Dr. Seuss books
• Adding to the shelf with books like Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night?, Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, Peppa Pig: Little Library, and Good Night, Little Blue Truck

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452109206
Publisher:	Chronicle Books
Publication date:	04/16/2013
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	69,587
Product dimensions:	9.60(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD610L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Sherri Duskey Rinker lives in the Chicago area with her photographer husband and two energetic, inquisitive sons: one fascinated by bugs and magic, and the other by trucks and trains. She created this goodnight story in hopes of happier bedtimes and sweet dreams for all. Find out more about Sherri at www.sherriduskeyrinker.com.

Tom Lichtenheld loves drawing pictures and telling silly stories. His books include the New York Times bestseller Duck! Rabbit!, Wumbers, and the ALA Notable Children’s Book, E-mergency! He lives in Geneva, Illinois. Visit him at www.tomlichtenheld.com.

Editorial Reviews

Like this team’s bestselling Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, this vehicular bedtime book revs up before winding down, and both text and art smoothly transition from stimulating to soothing. A train stops at the “Night Falls” station to pick up its animal crew, who energetically load the train: acrobatic monkeys carry monkey bars onto a boxcar, rabbits bounce aboard on pogo sticks, a polar bear fills a refrigerated car with giant ice cream sundaes, and leaping kangaroos toss balls into a hopper (“The crew hops to it, one and all—/ they get to work and have a ball!”). Rinker’s verse assumes a gentler lilt as the weary animals are pictured tucked into bed—on flatbed cars, fittingly—and the train is seen “Puffing, chuffing out of sight.../ Steam train, dream train.../ chhhhhh... goodnight.” Rendered in wax oil pastels, Lichtenheld’s moonlit illustrations have a lovely luster and a rich texture reminiscent of chalk drawings, using various shades of blue to evoke a magical midnight setting. A go-to goodnight story for train- and animal-loving preschoolers. Ages 1–6. Agent: Amy Rennert, Amy Rennert Agency. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"Another winner for bedtime." - The San Francisco Chronicle

"Skillfully combines both the factual and imaginative guises of trains in a playful picture book." - The Wall Street Journal

Chicago Public Library Best Picture Books of the Year

School Library Journal Best Books of the Year

”A go-to goodnight story for train- and animal-loving preschoolers.” - Publishers Weekly, starred review

"I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this rhythmic, rhyming hypnotic vehicle bedtime book from the team who brought us the best selling Good Night, Good Night, Construction Site. It’s another winner." - Lisa Von Drasek, Early Word

"Steam Train, Dream Train has the look and feel of a classic." - Common Sense Media

"Destined to be a bedtime classic." - WorkingMother.com

"The combination of words and drawings is sure to stir the imaginations of little ones as it lulls them to sleep." - MotherDaughterBookClub.com

"Rhythmic, engaging, and beautiful." - Amazon.com's Omnivoracious blog

"I loved Steam Train, Dream Train.... Can I see it becoming a favorite bedtime story's I most certainly can." - Roundtable Reviews

"A great bedtime book." - 5 Minutes for Books

"A book imbued with moonlit magic."—The Washington Post

"I expect this one to fly off the shelves." - Jen Robinson's Book Page

"Kids will clamor for this one at bedtime and storytime alike." - Booklist, starred review

“A feeling of warmth and an old-fashioned nursery aura abound.” - Kirkus Reviews

"I will be sharing Steam Train, Dream Train with some very excited students this week..." - Laura Given, Librarian

“Will be embraced as a nighttime standard, particularly among train lovers everywhere.”-School Library Journal, starred review

From the Publisher

PreS-K—From out of the midnight darkness comes a mighty train heading to Night Falls station. With clouds of steam hissing from the smokestack and brakes squealing, it comes to a stop and the animal crew jumps out, ready to load up the cars with freight. A rambunctious bunch of monkeys fills the boxcar with toys while kangaroos toss balls into the open-topped hopper car. Purple elephants use their trunks to fill the tanker cars with different colored paints as a polar bear and penguin put giant ice-cream sundaes in the reefer car. After such a hard night's work, the crew beds down on the flatbed car, ready for the steam engine to fire up and take them to dreamland. The strength of this book is in the striking spreads in wax oil pastel. A vast night sky is filled with sparkly stars and large billowing clouds that frame the oncoming train traveling through a realistically silhouetted landscape, while the animal crew looks strangely toylike, as though made of plush and plastic. It is not until the final spread that this incongruous bunch, and this whole dream, is explained by a nighttime look at a young train lover's bedroom. The beginning and end of the book are filled with expressive and enjoyable railroad sounds, yet the rhyming text loses a bit of steam in the middle, describing but not always enhancing the activity depicted in the illustrations. Still, this is a book that will, like its predecessor, Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site (Chronicle, 2011), be embraced as a nighttime standard, particularly among train lovers everywhere.—Teri Markson, Los Angeles Public Library

School Library Journal

"Through the darkness, clickety-clack... / coming closer, down the track..." The night train is arriving; it carries an unusual cargo and an even more surprising crew. Darkly lit pastel illustrations reveal monkeys, kangaroos, an elephant and various other animals, all of whom are ready to load freight appropriate to their eating habits, anatomy or abilities into a variety of different, named railroad cars. Rhymed text full of onomatopoeia describes the monkeys packing bananas, monkey bars, hula hoops and a sock monkey into the boxcar. Kangaroos toss balls into the hopper, and elephants squirt different-colored paints into tankers. Whimsical, dreamlike imagery continues as a polar bear loads a giant ice-cream sundae onto the freezer car, while the tortoises drive race cars onto an autorack. While it's not a strikingly original selection, a feeling of warmth and an old-fashioned nursery aura both abound here. Train and animal enthusiasts alike will enjoy the gentle action and may just drift off as the train fills up and the animals go to sleep, safely tucked in on flatbed cars that hold…beds. "Steam train, dream train... / chhhhhh...goodnight." A solid companion to Rinker and Lichtenheld's Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site (2011). (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews