Dog Train: Midnight Express: a Wild Ride on the Rock-and-roll Side

Full of attitude, full of fun, and all lit up with star power, Dog Train is a Recording Industry Association of America Gold Album with 600,000 copies in print. Another great book-and-CD production by Sandra Boynton, it features all original songs recorded by big-name acts and great voices.

Blues Traveler performs a stomping version of the title song, a moody rock journey that Boynton wrote especially for them. And then there’s Alison Krauss with “Evermore.” And Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme—really—who do the “Boring Song.” The Spin Doctors, who channel rock’s rebellious side—with a taste of punk—for “Tantrum”: “No No No, I don’t want to, I don’t want to./No no no, I don’t want to, no no./Leave me alone. Leave me alone./LEAVE ME ALONE.” And the sweetly unexpected pairing of “Weird Al” Yankovic and Kate Winslet (yep, Kate Winslet) as a duet singing “I Need a Nap.”

The full-color book features a portion of each song’s lyrics set as a little story, illustrated with Boynton’s irresistible hippos, cows, dogs, and more dogs. Full lyrics appear in the back.

Sandra Boynton is a popular American cartoonist, children's author, songwriter, producer, and director. Since 1974, Boynton has written and illustrated over sixty children's books and seven general audience books, including five New York Times bestsellers. More than 70 million of her books have been sold, "mostly to friends and family," she says. She has also written (with Michael Ford) and produced six albums of renegade children's music. Three of her albums have been certified Gold (over 500,000 copies sold), and Philadelphia Chickens, nominated for a Grammy, has gone Platinum (over 1 million copies sold). Boynton has also directed twelve music videos of her songs, including the award-winning "One Shoe Blues" starring B.B. King, "Alligator Stroll" starring Josh Turner, and "Tyrannosaurus Funk" (animation) sung by Samuel L. Jackson. She lives in rural New England, and her studio is in a barn with perhaps the only hippopotamus weathervane in America.