The Last Train

Gr 3—6—Gordon Titcomb reads and sings this love song to "the big iron horses" (Roaring Brook Press, 2010) that years ago rolled into little railroad stations. From the first lonesome wail of the freight train whistle, listeners are transported back to those small towns joined together by steel tracks that seemed to go on forever. The railroad men—engineer, ticket seller, brakeman, fireman, and porter—are honored for their part in the mystique of the train, as a young boy might have remembered them. A gold watch, a ticket punch, and a faded Union card are wonderfully evocative. "Gone now, like a dream/that slowly faded in the night,/Are the faces of this once familiar sight." Wendell Minor's watercolor paintings wonderfully capture splendid trains rolling through the night as well as the sadness of boarded-up train stations and rusted tracks. Arlo Guthrie's introduction and the author's note enclose lyrics, first read with music and sound effects, and then performed. Page-turn signals are optional. Echoing the rhythm of the rails, Titcomb's rendition of "The Last Train" is as haunting and evocative as the great train songs he acknowledges. Sure to please train lovers everywhere.—Mary Jean Smith, Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN