The Train of States - Softcover

Sis, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060578408 ISBN 13: 9780060578404

Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 2007

Synopsis

Peter Sís is an internationally acclaimed author, artist, and filmmaker. He was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, and graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague. He also studied at the Royal College of Art in London. His picture books for children include Play, Mozart, Play!; the Caldecott Honor Books Tibet: Through the Red Box and Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei; the New York Times Best Illustrated Book Tree of Life: Charles Darwin; and several popular books inspired by his own children, such as Madlenka and Fire Truck. He has also illustrated bestselling books written by Jack Prelutsky, among them Scranimals and The Dragons are Singing Tonight.

About this title

About the Author:

Peter Sís is an internationally acclaimed author, artist, and filmmaker. Among his works are three Caldecott Honor books: The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain; Tibet: Through the Red Box; and Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei. He has illustrated five other novels by Sid Fleischman, including the Newbery Medal book The Whipping Boy. He lives with his family in New York State.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* K-Gr. 3. Czech-born illustrator Sis celebrates his adopted country with an election-year salute to its 50 states. Inspired by his visit to Wisconsin's Circus World Museum, he presents each state as an elaborately decorated, antique circus wagon, emblazoned with symbolic, often whimsical images that range from state birds to native trees (and sons). Together, the wagons comprise a train of states being pulled, on kaleidoscopic wheels, past a schoolroom of dazzled children. The cars are ordered by the date of the state's admission to the union, leading off with Delaware, "The First State," and concluding with a Washington, D.C., "caboose." In the cab of a red-white-and-blue locomotive are the iconographic figures of Uncle Sam and an American eagle. A banner at the bottom of each page notes the state capital, tree, flower, and bird, along with a "fun fact" (elk, deer, and antelope outnumber humans in Montana). But it's the wagons--with their rococo embellishments and glorious gallimaufry of visual factoids, trivia, hoopla, and American hyperbole--that command attention and invite endless, wondering reexamination. Each look reveals something new, and, as if that were not enough, an appended page of notes offers further information that encourages children to create their own "train of states." Another dazzler from the incomparable Sis. Michael Cart
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About this edition

• Publisher: Greenwillow Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0060578408
• ISBN 13: 9780060578404
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 64
• Illustrator: Sis Peter