Trains Run!

by George Ella Lyon, Benn Lyon, Mick Wiggins (Illustrator)

Overview

We’ve already learned that trucks roll, planes fly, and boats float. Now, all aboard for the fourth book in George Ella Lyon’s transportation series, and this time learn all about trains!

Train travels
down the track—
all day gone
all night back.
Trains run!

From steam engines to subways, from the locomotive to the caboose, this story stays right on track, exploring all different kinds of trains and what they do in a day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481482028
Publisher:	Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books
Publication date:	06/04/2019
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

George Ella Lyon is the author of Trucks Roll!, Planes Fly!, and Boats Float!, cowritten with her son Benn. Among George Ella’s other books are the ALA Notable All the Water in the World, What Forest Knows, and Time to Fly. A former Kentucky Poet Laureate, she lives with her family in Lexington, Kentucky. Visit her online at GeorgeEllaLyon.com.

Benn Lyon is the coauthor of Boats Float! and caretaker of the new town hall in Popperville.

Mick Wiggins is an award-winning illustrator living and working in Little Rock, Arkansas. His work can be found in George Ella Lyon’s Planes Fly! and at MickWiggins.com.

Editorial Reviews

07/22/2019

Adding to their growing oeuvre of transportation books, the parent/child authors again pair up with Wiggins, this time riffing on all things train. In lively rhyming text, the Lyons touch on everything from toy trains to locomotives to box cars, even including a nod to The Little Engine That Could (“Can a train climb a mountain? I think it can!”). The refrain “Trains run!” repeats throughout, lending the songlike verse an energy seamlessly matched by Wiggins’s vintage-style digital art (an “iron horse/ on its course” is a blur as speeding across a golden field). And for all its forward motion, delightful additions by Wiggins (animals tucked into most spreads, enormous fruits taking up a truck bed) offer myriad amusements to linger over. This team clearly knows what they’re doing—their enthusiastic celebration fully captures the magic and majesty of trains. Ages 4–8. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Sure to attract young train-lovers."

Booklist

"Sure to attract young train-lovers."

Booklist

06/01/2019

PreS-Gr 1—This installment in a transportation series by George Ella Lyon and her son Benn takes on the world of trains. The jaunty story explores how trains are powered, the sounds they make, the different types of cars they pull, and much more. As in Planes Fly, Boats Float, and Trucks Roll, the rhyming text is set in large and bold font and the placement of the wording changes from page to page, which adds visual interest. Not only are different types of trains explored, but also the people who ride them, work on them, and the different terrains they travel through. To add to the fun, the refrain "Trains run!" is repeated throughout and will certainly encourage young readers to join in. Wiggins's digitally created illustrations capture the rhythm and flow of locomotives and there is a particularly dramatic spread of a train traveling over an awe-inspiring trestle bridge as people look on. VERDICT An excellent choice for storytimes and read-alouds everywhere.—Amy Nolan, St. Joseph Public Library, MI

School Library Journal