I've Been Working on the Railroad: An American Classic - Hardcover

Nadine Bernard Westcott

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786800534 ISBN 13: 9780786800537

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 1996

Synopsis

An illustrated presentation of the familiar folk song about railroad life.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Matched with perky illustrations, the spirited, on-the-job lyrics to this ever-popular American folk song serve as narrative to a lighthearted, contemporary train journey that pays homage to traditional railroad imagery. A singing trio-banjo and harmonica players and a guitarist-climb on board, setting the musical atmosphere. Driven by a cheerful, waving engineer, a boy and his dog, the train chugs its way through idyllic, pastel-colored suburbs, a billboarded desert and hilly, rural expanses. The line "Can't you hear the whistle blowing?" is humorously aimed at a herd of wary-looking cows grazing on and around the tracks, while the legendary horn-blowing Dinah is proprietress of a whistle-stop cafe (painted an eye-catching pink, it's visible from a distance). The musical trio joins her in the kitchen for a rousing, customer-participation song and dance finale. Complete lyrics and musical score are included in the back, along with brief mention of the song's late-19th-century provenance. A worthy interpretation. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 2^-6. Buoyant is the word for this picture-book version of the familiar folk song. The lyrics form the text, while the illustrations offer a mild storyline, in which a boy and his dog ride up front with the engineer as the train pulls out of a city station, travels through the countryside, and stops for a visit at Dinah's Cafe. But it's not the plot that makes this book sing; it's the ebullient spirit of the illustrations. Before the train even gets out of town, the harmonica-and banjo-playing trainmen are floating out in the margins. By the end, Dinah's fried eggs and bacon are flying through the air, and oddly enough, it all seems to make sense--at least, the way dreams make sense. Westcott's naive ink drawings, washed with watercolors in progressively vibrant hues, create a mood that makes this book almost impossible to just read: it really must be sung. The music (with simple guitar chords) and a short note on the song's history are appended. Carolyn Phelan

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0786800534
• ISBN 13: 9780786800537
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32