Pajama-clad Ben draws a train and steps on board, beginning a ride that takes him “Past green hills/Where horses browse,/An old farm house./A field of cows./And a whir and a whistle,/That seem to be saying,/To go anywhere/Is better than staying.” Painting in a realistic style, Yardley constructs playscapes in which toys and full-size animals or landforms mix, while train and track shift back and forth between solid reality and a simple crayon drawing. Plunging into a subway tunnel, the train stops at last at a station called “In-My-Bed,” so that Ben can crawl beneath the covers and “dream train dreams/Till morning comes.” Other children have taken similar journeys in many books, but the art provides an unusually clear evocation of the way imagination, anchored in reality, can bring the whole world right into the bedroom. (Picture book. 5-7)
