Freight train

With a few words and the most marvellous illustrations, Freight Train will take your child on a magical journey. Each page features a different part of the freight train in a bright color. Then the whole train moves through the countryside, faster and faster until the colors start to blur from the speed. Several things make this simple book so effective. First, the bright colors are identified to help preschoolers learn them. Next, the different cars on the train are given names, so young engineers will recognize them when they see a real freight train. They are introduced to the engine and tender (in hard-working black), a hopper car, a tanker car, a flat car, and so on all the way to the red caboose in back.

In powerful words and vibrant illustrations, Donald Crews evokes the essence of inexorably rolling wheels, so that even a child not lucky enough to have counted freight cars will feel he has watched a freight train passing.

A book truly for the youngest child -- and for every one of us who has been that child.