Module 3:Locomotive

Summary: Follow a family heading west as they travel by train from Omaha, Nebraska to Sacramento, California. Experience the sites and sounds of train travel in 1869 from boarding the train and having your ticket punched to having lunch at a railroad restaurant. See famous sites and treacherous territory.

Citation:

Floca, B. (2013). Locomotive. S.l.: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Impressions: This is one of the most lavishly illustrated picture books that I have ever seen. The research and detail that has gone into this book is truly amazing. To make things even better, the text is written in free verse. It's a perfect melding of text and illustrations.

Reviews:

Leave it to the author/illustrator who has three times been awarded the Robert F. Sibert Honor Award (Lightship, Moonshot, Ballet for Martha) to bring readers an epic, yet also intimate, 64-page picture book about America's first transcontinental railroad and the "iron horses" that rode them-the great trains of 1869 that took Americans on the "new road of rails" made for crossing the country Brian Floca's Locomotive will surely go down as one of 2013's best picture books, an intricately detailed and exhaustively researched look at the Union Pacific, the Central Pacific and the spike made of gold that once joined them. In vivid and precise free verse, Floca frames the story with a family traveling to California, and it is with them that readers take the exhilarating ride. Floca's research--which was conducted over several years and included driving the transcontinental route himself, which he describes as an "invaluable" part of his studies-makes for an engaging, highly accessible piece of nonfiction. "So much of all (that time period) comes down to us in posed, sometimes stiff, always still, black-and-white pictures," Floca says, "but the period and its inventions would amaze any age with their color, motion and vitality Getting a feel for that, and getting to write and paint about it--it was a great experience!" A remarkable achievement, Locomotive is a must-see for readers of all ages. All aboard!


Danielson, J. (2013, May 31). Brian Floca's Locomotive: A vivid free-verse ride across America. Kirkus Reviews, 42-42. Retrieved February 7, 2016, from Book Review Digest Plus (H.W. Wilson).

Library Use: I would do a program around this book and invite members of the local toy train group to set up a display related to this book. Since kids love trains, this would be a perfect way to tie the book into a large scale exhibit or event.