Freight Train Trip!: A Lift-the-Flap Adventure

by Susanna Leonard Hill, Ana Martin Larranaga (Illustrator)

Overview

The freight train’s pulling from the yard.
The locomotive’s working hard.
“Safe trip!” calls the station master.
Chugga chugga, the train rolls faster.

Susanna Leonard Hill's rhythmic text and Ana Martin Larranaga's simple but enticing art will take young readers on an adventurous freight train trip! Kids can lift the10 flaps throughout the book to make their reading experience more fun! This interactive book that's shaped like a freight train is perfect for young children who are going on a train for the first—or the one-hundredth—time!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416978336
Publisher:	Little Simon
Publication date:	09/08/2009
Series:	Lift-the-Flap Series
Pages:	12
Product dimensions:	9.40(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

Susanna Leonard Hill is the award-winning author of nearly a dozen books for children, including Punxsutawney Phyllis (A Booklist Children’s Pick and Amelia Bloomer Project choice); No Sword Fighting in the House (a Junior Library Guild selection); Can’t Sleep Without Sheep (a Children’s Book of the Month); and Not Yet, Rose (a Gold Mom’s Choice Award winner). She lives in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley with her husband, children, and two rescue dogs. She loves chocolate, animals, and being outdoors.

Ana Martin Larrañaga lives with her family in Germany. She doesn't have a dog or a goat but is always thinking of getting one (maybe because her eldest son asks for one of each constantly). She is the illustrator of more than 60 children's books.

Editorial Reviews

The title says it all. This is one of Hill and Larranaga's series of sculpted-edged, transportation-themed board books. It takes its ninety-seven freight cars full of animals, toys, fruit, and lumber safely from an eastern railroad yard cross-country to its final western destination. Along its route, the engine must stop for a crossing gate and barely avoids a head-on crash when Switchman Jack almost forgets to switch tracks for a passenger train, but all is well that ends well. The flaps are absolutely basic paper engineering, but manage to hide a few surprises, while the softly rounded forms of Larranaga's politically-correct mixture of little people are comforting. Meanwhile, Hill's rhymed text chugs the train forward. Alas, the red caboose no longer exists in modern railroading, so for that old homey feeling toddlers will have to make do with the girl engineer's ginger cat. Reviewer: Kathleen Karr

Children's Literature - Kathleen Karr

A laden freight train makes its westbound run, only narrowly missing a collision with an eastbound commuter train. The oversized trim allows for a nice extension of the train and accommodates up to two flaps per spread. These flaps are flimsy things and likely will not last more than a few readings. That's OK, as the labored verse ("The engine rushes down the track, / with ninety-seven cars in back. / They are full of lumber; toys, and more, / and headed for the western shore") will drive adult readers round the bend. The excitement of the near-collision is blunted, first by a flap that reveals the successful rail-switching before the text does and then by a concluding, "it's been fun!" summation. Get another copy of Donald Crews's Freight Train and give this a miss. (Ages 18 mos.-3)

Kirkus Reviews