Lehman, Barbara. Trainstop. Illustrated by Barbara Lehman. Houghton Mifflin, 2008. ISBN 9780618756407. $16.00. 32 p.
Reviewer: Kate Reynolds
Reading Level: All
Rating: Outstanding
Genre: Picture books;
Subject: Stories without words--Juvenile fiction; Railroads--Juvenile fiction; Helping behavior--Juvenile fiction; Books--Reviews;
Lehman has once again produced a delightful and imaginative wordless picture book; this one stars a young girl who disembarks from her train and steps into a Lilliputian land where she helps some stranded folk. Returning to the train, she leaves the colorful countryside to return to the drab city with her parents. But her adventure is not over yet, when she arrives home, she gets a surprise visit from her new wee friends.
The illustrations are bold with thick, heavy outlines, and the story unfolds in successive frames--some small, others whole page or two-page spreads. Trainstop is a worthy addition to Lehman's previous works with more leeway for the imagination than Rainstorm (Houghton Mifflin, 2007). This book is somewhat whimsical in plot, but solid in entertainment. Trainstop is a particularly good choice for a classroom collection for young children to inspire oral or written storytelling; it would work well along side Wiesner's Sector 7 (Clarion, 1999) as a look at how imagination can transform the mundane into an adventure.
Volume 29, no.1 (September/October 2008)
