My Freight Train - Hardcover

Rex, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805066829 ISBN 13: 9780805066821

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 2002

Synopsis

The boxcar is loaded and ready to go. All aboard!

"I have a freight train. I drive it all the time. I’m the engineer."

The freight train is all loaded up and ready to go. The engineer is at the controls. It’s his job to deliver the freight, and there is a lot of it. Cows and chickens are riding in the livestock car, furniture and toys in the boxcar. There is even a refrigerator car full of ice cream and bologna. Driving all this freight where it needs to go is a big job!

In this bright, active picture book, a little boy lives out the fantasy of driving his own freight train, down to the last accurate detail.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Rex is not a freight train engineer, but he did learn a lot about trains while he was making this book. He is the author and illustrator of a number of books for children, including The Pie Is Cherry, The Painting Gorilla, My Race Car, and My Fire Engine. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews

PreSchool-Rex balances a story about a child who imagines that he is an engineer with information about trains. As the story opens, the boy is playing with his electric train. This framing device blends seamlessly into the factual part of the text. The engineer introduces the various cars and their contents, ranging from automobiles to chickens to gasoline. He explains that he is expected to keep the train on schedule, and he is proud of his contribution to communities everywhere through his distribution of materials. The presentation of information encourages children to learn train terminology while surrounded by familiar objects such as gravel and ice cream. Illustrations of each type of car are colorful and distinct, and all of the pictures are packed with energy and movement. Friendly, active, diverse characters fill each one-people smiling, waving, and working. This winning story ends with the African-American protagonist falling asleep in his father's lap while dad plays with the train set. A perfect choice for all young railroad fans.
Susan Marie Pitard, formerly at Weezie Library for Children, Nantucket Atheneum, MA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A boy dons an engineer's cap and explains railroad cars, cargo, destinations and more in My Freight Train, a companion to My Fire Engine by Michael Rex. In his trademark illustrations, Rex's charcoal pencil lines and bright colors chart the train's progress. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

PreS-K. Using the same conceit as his books My Fire Engine (1999) and My Race Car (2000), Rex takes children behind the throttle of a freight train. On the opening page, an African American boy wearing an engineer's cap plays with his toy train set. The next picture shows him, lunch box in hand, climbing aboard a full-size engine for a day at work. His smile invites viewers to come along as he explains what he does all day as engineer, what each type of freight car carries, and what is unloaded at each stop along the way. The bold, energetic pencil drawings, digitally brightened with colors, are sometimes crowded to the point of busyness, but some children will enjoy the details and actions that fill the pages. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805066829
• ISBN 13: 9780805066821
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32