All Aboard!

Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding and Original Achievement
Review: Mr. Barnes, a slightly mysterious rabbit in a blue suit, goes on a train ride in this incredibly engaging and original book. "All Aboard" combines old-fashioned sensibilities (the first few pages evoked 1950's illustrations to me) with a rarely seen sophistication in the test and illustrations. I loved it.

Amiko Hirao's dazzling pictures draw the reader right into the center of the story. You are immersed in the huge color displays, and the cinematic collages and low and high picture angles. Without showing a single step, she conveys both the upper berth and the aisle of a train; she inserts cut pictures of faces into a colored-pencil nightscape; she startles us with an immense dark tunnel. In one particularly original picture, a child looks directly at the reader, a passenger (only the right arm is shown) reads a yellowed newspaper with the headline "Olivia is Born," and a cuff-linked giraffe talks on a cell phone-it's dreamlike, a little noir film in day-glow colors.

Mary Lyn Ray's writing also combines the traditional and the original. There are familiar repetitions and rhythms (although look how she punctuates the following):

Whoonk whoonk wahooomk. The trains start slow.
But then it begins to roll.
Long train, silver train. Long train, silver train.
Long train. Silver train. Long train. Silver train.
Train, train, train, train.
Whooo whoooooo

and there are phrases that convey imagery and metaphor: Baggaged boxes "sleep," and, as the train rolls along: "A city slides by, strung with lights in the night, like a tug of dreams on a river." Similarly, one page has the familiar cadence of " A freight flashes by...Red red yellow green yellow yellow blue green. Vrooom. Vroom. Vroom," but the next page describes how "Mr. Barnes likes to look out the window. He likes to see the between. The between where's he's come from and where he goes to." The book also has a fun surprise ending. How can you not like an author who dedicates the book "for everyone who waves from trains, and all those who wave back?"

I think that kids from toddler to early grade school age will enjoy the book immensely. However, because of the art and design, teens and adults will appreciate Ray and Hirao's exceptionally talented imagination. Very, very highly recommended!


Rating:
Summary: Great simple story, beautiful illustrations, poetic writing
Review: This book has a simple yet appealing story that kids can relate to (going on a journey, trains, a favorite stuffed animal and family). The language used is descriptive of a train sounds and fun to read. The illustrations are colorful, stylish and full of humorous detail (the mole's devotion to Crunch bars and reading books). I love reading this book almost as much as my three year old son does.

Rating:
Summary: Great simple story, beautiful illustrations, poetic writing
Review: This book has a simple yet appealing story that kids can relate to (going on a journey, trains, a favorite stuffed animal and family). The language used is descriptive of a train sounds and fun to read. The illustrations are colorful, stylish and full of humorous detail (the mole's devotion to Crunch bars and reading books). I love reading this book almost as much as my three year old son does.