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BEAR ON THE TRAIN

Name: BEAR ON THE TRAIN
Author: Julie Lawson
ISBN: 1-55074-560-3

by Julie Lawson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1999

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The story line is simple: A bear gets on a train in late autumn, drawn by the smell of grain in its hoppers, and after a prolonged snack takes a prolonged snooze in the bowels of the hopper as the train crisscrosses the continent until springtime. Lawson’s words have a lovely elemental temper, spare, chiming, and timeless. “Bear paid no attention. He slept as the train rocked and rolled out of town. He slept through the mountains. He slept through the foothills. He slept through the prairie.” The train and the landscapes it runs through are beautifully rendered by Deines, with an impressionistic sense of place harnessed by the implacable energy of the locomotive and its train of cars. Unlike the tree in the forest, the bear does not go totally unnoticed; a boy named Jeffrey sees the bear get on the train and shouts a warning to get off; each time the train pulls through his home range that winter, Jeffrey hollers to the snoozing bear, and his words become as talismanic as the bear’s act of hibernation. When the bear lumbers off the train come spring, shuffling into the wild without a look back, all seems quite right with the world. (Picture book. 3-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999

ISBN: 1-55074-560-3

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Kids Can

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
GHOSTS OF THE <i>TITANIC</i>
by Julie Lawson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE KLONDIKE CAT
by Julie Lawson & illustrated by Paul Mombourquette

- BOOK REVIEW
DANGER GAME
by Julie Lawson

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QUACK AND COUNT

by Keith Baker & illustrated by Keith Baker ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1999

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Baker (Big Fat Hen, 1994, etc.) engages in more number play, posing ducklings in every combination of groups, e.g., “Splashing as they leap and dive/7 ducklings, 2 plus 5.” Using a great array of streaked and dappled papers, Baker creates a series of leafy collage scenes for the noisy, exuberant ducklings to fill, tucking in an occasional ladybug or other small creature for sharp-eyed pre-readers to spot. Children will regretfully wave goodbye as the ducks fly off in neat formation at the end of this brief, painless introduction to several basic math concepts. (Picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-15-292858-8

Page Count: 24

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
LMNO PEA-QUEL
by Keith Baker ; illustrated by Keith Baker

- BOOK REVIEW
HAP-PEA ALL YEAR
by Keith Baker ; illustrated by Keith Baker

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE GREEN PEAS
by Keith Baker ; illustrated by Keith Baker

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DORY STORY

by Jerry Pallotta ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2000

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Who is next in the ocean food chain? Pallotta has a surprising answer in this picture book glimpse of one curious boy. Danny, fascinated by plankton, takes his dory and rows out into the ocean, where he sees shrimp eating those plankton, fish sand eels eating shrimp, mackerel eating fish sand eels, bluefish chasing mackerel, tuna after bluefish, and killer whales after tuna. When an enormous humpbacked whale arrives on the scene, Danny’s dory tips over and he has to swim for a large rock or become—he worries’someone’s lunch. Surreal acrylic illustrations in vivid blues and red extend the story of a small boy, a small boat, and a vast ocean, in which the laws of the food chain are paramount. That the boy has been bathtub-bound during this entire imaginative foray doesn’t diminish the suspense, and the facts Pallotta presents are solidly researched. A charming fish tale about the one—the boy—that got away. (Picture book. 4-8)