Night Train, Night Train, written by Robert Burleigh and Illustrated by Wendell Minor is a picture book look at the beauty of a train trip on a 1940’s steam engine passenger train through the eyes of a small boy. He’s traveling alone with a suitcase and a stuffed bear. The trip is taking him from a rural locale to an urban setting as he goes from one family member to visit another.
The rhythmic writing captures the feeling of the train’s mighty wheels. First, the young boy studies the changing landscape with its fields and cows holds his brown teddy bear tightly and then falls gently asleep. “Eyelids flutter. Nod. Lean back. Rattle. Rumble. Down the track.”
The illustrations, rendered in graphite on paper, bring the train through the dark night which progressively is dotted with color from red-lighted railway crossings to white twinkling stars to orange sparks from the heavy wheels as the train moves through a dark tunnel to purple neon signs and finally to the yellow lights of the destination city’s train station. “Night train, night train, into-morning-bright train.” The story is told beautifully with the words and pictures in complete harmony.
Night Train, Night Train, written in a soft lyrical style by Robert Burleigh and illustrated perfectly by Wendell Minor is a reassuring picture book that also serves well as a bedtime story for young children 2-5 years of age (Charlesbridge, 2018).
Questions for Night Train, Night Train
Have you ever taken a trip on a train? If so, think back and try to remember the sound of the train as it rolled down the tracks and the faces of the other passengers. Were you the only child on board? If you have never taken a trip on a train would you like to in the near future? Where would you like to go? Why?
The illustrator has a note at the back of this book that says the passenger train that is pictured in this book is his drawing of a Dreyfuss Hudson steam engine locomotive. If you would like to see one of these trains moving, ask your parents or teacher to help you find it on the internet. There is a moving picture of the New York Central Hudson steam engine locomotive online among others.
Let’s read the pictures: How can you tell the first train station is in the country? Who do you think takes the boy to the station for departure? From the pictures how do you know the train is moving all night? How can you tell that the destination station is in a city? Is the boy happy to have arrived in the city? Who do you think meets him there?