TRAIN

In his driving, rhythmic text, Temple (Cadillac, 1995) evokes all the huffing, puffing, swaying, clacking, rattling wonder of a long train ride—from daybreak departure to nighttime, when ``the seats go turning into beds.'' Johnson's loosely painted, full-bleed acrylics nicely capture the mood of the journey from every angle; sometimes he focuses on the passengers and interiors of the train, other times he views the train from the distant perspective of a man in jail or the cows in the field. Quietly, the book dispels stereotypes. The featured passengers are an African-American family, while the dining car porter is white. For story hour sharing or quiet read-alones. (Picture book. 4-8)