New Baby Train - Hardcover

Woody Guthrie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316072036 ISBN 13: 9780316072038

Publisher: Little Brown Young Readers, 2004

Synopsis

Wondering where babies come from, a young child is told that they arrive on the New Baby Train that travels its long tracks from destination to destination, picking up and delivering its precious bundles along the way.

About this title

About the Author

Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) wrote more than a thousand folk songs, including many for children. Woody loved babies and he loved trains. His rail journeys across the country inspired some of his most famous songs, including "This Train is Bound for Glory" and "This Land is Your Land." His song "New Baby Train" was recently recorded for the first time by Kim Wilson on the CD, Daddy O Daddy.

Marla Frazee has created many acclaimed picture books, including the lullaby Hush, Little Baby, a Folk Song with Pictures. As a longtime fan of Woody Guthrie and American roots music, Frazee approached this project with a desire to capture Woody's spirit, playfulness, and era. She visited train museums, studied photographs of the Dust Bowl, and listened to a lot of Woody's music while working on this book. She works in a small cabin in the backyard of the house she shares with her husband and three sons in Pasadena, California.

Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 1–Guthrie's song is brought to life by Frazee's gouache illustrations, which tell a story all their own. A guitar-playing narrator and his younger siblings sit together on their front porch, as the boy tries to explain where babies come from. The text reads, "I guess little babies come along/just about any way they can./Cars, trucks, tractors, airplanes,/any way they can come." In subsequent illustrations, the children dash off, wait for a train together, and watch as their brother climbs aboard. Babies also wait for the train and when it arrives, they line up, all sizes, shapes, and colors, with diapers dragging and tickets ready. The narrator tells their tale as the train races through hill and dale, clouds and sky, to deliver its cargo. On the way, the little ones are served bottles of milk, take naps, and then, one by one, are dropped off at their new homes. The boy brings the last one to his house, where the entire family welcomes the new arrival. The brown palette of the artwork and the clothing of the characters give this book a Depression-era look, while the technique of using lines to fill the backgrounds provides a constant sense of motion. Swirling clouds surround a train that doesn't need tracks and at times looks like it's flying to its destination. A fanciful and fun rendition.–Jane Marino, Bronxville Public Library, NY
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PreS-Gr. 1. A set of recently discovered lyrics by America's favorite troubadour, presented here without music, postulates a whimsical alternative to the stork-special-delivery school of reproductive thought. "I guess little babies come along just about any way they can," Guthrie muses--though he prefers to imagine them chugging home aboard the "new baby train." Guthrie's verses are as ramblin' as their nomadic originator, and these don't translate to print as well as the far better known "This Land Is Your Land" did in Kathy Jakobsen's 1998 book. But Frazee finds spark to ignite her imagination in Guthrie's words, unfolding a visual tall tale about a youngster who hitches a ride aboard the train to soothe its infant passengers. Flecked brown paper imparts a Dust Bowl atmosphere, and backgrounds rendered with powerful horizontal strokes suggest the blurred view through a train's window. Press this upon adoptive families, who will particularly appreciate the notion of babies on a whistle-stop tour of welcoming households. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Little Brown Young Readers
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0316072036
• ISBN 13: 9780316072038
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Frazee Marla
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32