THE TRAIN THEY CALL THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS

Centering around the famous campfire song, "City of New Orleans", the era of train travel and the diversity of America as experienced by passengers is presented by the illustrator of Iron Horses.

K-Gr. 3. The popular folk song, written by the late Goodman, gets a dynamic, nostalgic treatment. The haunting lyrics re-create a time some 50 years ago when people traveled by train--from Chicago through Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi to New Orleans. McCurdy uses scratchboard-and-watercolor illustrations to bring the lyrics to life, and while the pictures sometimes follow the text too literally, they certainly will have children looking closely. They show the train ride inside and out: the landscape, riddled with junked cars or growing grain; the passengers playing cards in the club car; the engineers and the Pullman porters. McCurdy's overhead perspectives, as the train speeds down the track, are among the most effective. For the many children who have never ridden the train, this captures both the boredom and the exciting difference from everyday life that occurs on a long-distance ride. A useful map introduces the text, but there's no music, a missing piece of an otherwise well-designed package. Ilene Cooper
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