A regular rolling Noah

The adventures of a young boy hired to shepherd a boxcar of farm animals from Kentucky to Canada.

Grade 2-3 An honest story told deceptively simply in prose that rings like a struck crystal goblet: clear with a full range of overtones. The adolescent storyteller is hired to help move a farm family from Kentucky to Canada by rail. In his matter of fact first-person account, children will feel his love of animals and the land as he describes the chores and changing landscape. Gammell's good-natured naturalistic watercolors extend the sparse narrative in detailing the events involved in the move: packing quilts and sacks of feed, caring for the animals, and sharing a fire with hoboes. He creates character with his brush, be it a stoic hen, a contented cow, or the vitally happy hero. Even the vintage train is invested with a spirit of determination as its engine billows black smoke and its caboose puffs out wisps of grey from its skinny smokestack. Author and artist combine their considerable skills in this tale of one boy's trip West that echoes the spirit of those involved in the Westward expansion. Kenneth Marantz, Art Education Department, Ohio State University, Columbus
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Poet Lyon and Caldecott Honorwinner Gammell tell the story of an unusual train trip from Kentucky to Canada, with text that sings and shimmering paintings that fairly burst with color. The boy who narrates the tale has been hired by the Creeches to help them movelivestock and allup North. An entire household of belongings is loaded onto freight cars, and a boxcar becomes a barn on wheels; it is an old hobo the narrator meets who dubs the lad "A regular rolling Noah," for taking care of Rosie the cow and her calf, chickens and guineas, a mare named Bad Patch and other animals. They pass through a place where "We've run out of mountains./ Sky right down to your ankles./Big wind might blow you away." Finally, they arrive, and the boy is given, for pay, a ticket back to Kentucky. On his way, he muses, "World's a big affair . . . . / Be glad you have these mountains to call home." This work is a feast for the eyes and ears.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.