Review by Booklist Review
Ages 3-8. In Simon's signature style, each double-page spread in this picture book sets a dramatic close-up photo of a moving train opposite a few sentences about the train's source of power (steam, diesel, electric) and how it works. The full-color, close-up pictures by a number of photographers will grab even young preschoolers--from the long-range view of the old steam locomotive pulling a line of passenger cars through the mountains to the close-ups of hopper cars carrying grain, coal, or gravel. The astonishing facts will interest older train buffs, whether the author is writing about the breathtaking speeds of today's electric trains or computerized freight yards where cars are sorted and separated. Simon captures the combination of technology and romantic adventure that gives these machines their enduring appeal. --Hazel Rochman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In Seymour Simon's Book of Trains, the author dedicates one spread each to various kinds of trains, with a full-color photograph on one side and, opposite, a couple of paragraphs describing it. He covers everything from old-fashioned diesel trains to subways that run on electricity to France's TGV (with speeds of between 200-300 mph). A series of spreads on the freight train details different kinds of cars. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 4-Trains and individual freight cars are displayed in glorious full color in this oversized book. Simon offers information on different types of these machines from the earliest steam locomotives to France's TGV, which can reach speeds of 300 miles per hour. The section on freight trains delves into each car from boxcars to the now-obsolete caboose. The sharp pictures cover half of each spread. One small complaint is that while the TGV and Japan's bullet trains are mentioned, they are not pictured. But never mind. Even preschoolers will be drawn in by the large, abundant photographs. Another winner from a popular author.-Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Preschool, Primary) The layout and organization of this book is vintage Simon: single pages of clear, direct text describing various topic subsets; handsome, well-chosen glossy photographs on facing pages; and generous leading. This time, the unifying subject is trains, providing readers a peripatetic journey riding the rails across the United States. Simon begins with a brief history of trains, defines kinds of trains by both power (diesel and electric) and function (passenger and freight), provides brief explanations of different cars (gondola, hopper, and caboose), and concludes with the importance of trains in today's world. The undefined use of the term piston may require adult intervention for young listeners and readers eager to know just how steam and diesel locomotives work. The illustrations fuel a number of opportunities for preschoolers to revisit the book, identifying, for example, cars that carry milk or automobiles or counting the number of red cars in a pictured freight yard. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Young trainiacs rejoice! The inimitable author of Seymour Simon's Book of Trucks (2000) offers a companion volume featuring the same sort of huge, bright, sharply focused color photos paired to succinct descriptive and historical commentary. Sandwiched between an attention-grabbing gallery of locomotive headshots and elevated closing views of a pair of crowded rail yards lit by a low sun, the author introduces rolling stock, past and present-from quaint cog railways to state-of-the-art bullet trains, plus an array of freight and tank cars. Simon continues to irritate lazy readers by refusing to caption his pictures; instead, he alludes to them in the accompanying text, adding anecdotes, detail, and background information in typically calm, orderly prose. Detail-lovers might wish to know just which trains they are seeing, and a bibliography or list of Web sites at the end would not have been amiss-but big machinery has never looked better. (Nonfiction. 7-9)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
