Two Little Trains

Rating:
Summary: They'll be coming round the mountain when they come
Review: When I became a children's librarian there were certain kid obsessions I was expecting. I expected kids to request books about dinosaurs, and unicorns, and magic. What I didn't expect was the overwhelming amount of books requested regarding trains. I thought the love of trains was long past and that kids would have forgotten their shiny chugging ways. But with the popularity of things like "The Polar Express" and "Harry Potter", trains are getting rediscovered all the time. That means any book, picture or otherwise, that capitalizes on this is going to be a hit. There is an abudance of poorly written train fare out there. Then you stumble across something like Margaret Wise Brown's, "Two Little Trains" which was recently reillustrated by the talented Leo and Diane Dillon. It's not only well-written but remarkably beautiful. Any and every young train enthusiast should pluck it up forthwith.

Unlike many picture books, the story told by this one begins on the cover. As we look at this book we see a beautiful sleek silver train resting in a station. Beside it, alongside the track, sit two packed bags and a wrapped present of a toy train. By the time you read the title page the present has been opened (presumably by small hands) and the little train sits silently on the floor awaiting play. Then the words begin. "Two little trains went down the track/ Two little trains went West". On the left hand page sits the grand old silvery sleek train, gearing up to leave the station. On the right hand page you can just barely make out the little toy train as it sits beneath a kitchen chair, readying itself for its journey as well. As the big adult train travels through the countryside, the little toy train does the same, only on a much smaller scale. So when the big train goes through a mountainous tunnel, the little one passes under a propped up book that's entitled "Hills". When the big one goes over a river, the little one rides over the edge of a full bath. Rain on the big train? A bathroom shower on the little one. It continues in this fashion until at last the two trains reach their destinations when, "They had come to the edge of the West".

Widely regarded children's author Margaret Wise Brown originally wrote this story in 1949, possibly with a completely different vision of how it would play out. After all, the text never says that one train is real and that the other a toy. Instead it says that one train was a "streamlined train" and that the other was, "a little old train". So presumably (and I haven't seen the original so I can't really attest to this) this was supposed to be a story about the old and the new trains of the world. Instead, illustrators Leo and Diane Dillon have given the book an entirely new life. The original words by Brown are just as catchy and interesting as they ever were. Incredibly enough, they have not aged. But the pictures are what really give you pause.

Everything in this book is given a kind of rounded sheen in this story. Each surface is deep and clearly delineated. Some of the simplest objects you might find in a home are present here. The Dillons have placed this book in a time that could be anything from 1949 to 2005. Certainly the toys in the child's house are a little old-fashioned, but they're also timeless. There's a bouncy ball, a teddy bear, and a rubber duck. The toy train itself is made of colorful blocks of wood, not something plastic or breakable. The streamlined train appears to be placed in a contemporary world (it's super-sleek) but again there aren't any landmarks that make this clear. Just the usual bridges, cities, and countrysides. I liked the Dillons' choice to never show the child that is playing with the little train. Instead, we occasionally see a rubber ducky noting the toy's progress as it navigates difficult slopes and wet spots. At the end of the story, the little train rests beside a child's bed, the kid in it asleep and turned away from us. We don't even know if it's a boy or a girl, and that's a wonderful thing.

Usually I think that reillustrating old classic picture books is a dangerous occupation. Would you countenance someone drawing new illustrations for "Where the Wild Things Are" or "Millions of Cats"? Of course you wouldn't. But in cases where the original book is forgotten (possibly rightly) I've no qualms about the process in the least. The Dillons have done a remarkable job here, one that I've no doubt will remain a favorite in children's homes for years and years to come. If you want a picture book for your kids that is catchy and bouncy, accompanied by illustrations that never grow old AND that your child will probably adore reading again and again... give "Two Little Trains" a try. A beautiful new interpretation.