Riding the Rails: Chugga Chugga Choo Choo by Kevin Lowe

SUN'S UP. MORNING'S HERE! 

UP AND AT 'EM, ENGINEER!

CHUGGA CHUGGA CHOO CHOO!

WHISTLE BLOWS. 

WHOOOOOOOOO! WHOOOOOOOOO!

A Teddy bear and all the toys wave to the engineer and boy as the train as a clown oversees the loading of boxcars and the choo choo pulls out of the station. The old-fashioned locomotive, drivers driving, begin the journey, pulling a coal car, freight cars, and a red caboose. The train winds through the room under a chair and over its rocker as train lovers, a man and boy, a cowboy on horseback, and a barking dog watch it pass. Through the Box Mountains and wooden-blocks pass the little train goes. And then...

INTO THE TUNNELS, UNDERGROUND.

SEE THE DARKNESS, HEAR THE SOUND! WHOOOOOOOOOO!

Then the train crosses the long bridge over the river, and not far ahead is their destination--the city. A dog walker waves to the boy and the engineer as the train slows down for the station, where strong workers wait to unload the freight--a box of penguins and a box of dog bones come off first as the boxcars grow empty.  And then, down goes the sun.

THE JOB IS DONE!

And into the roundhouse the engine, coal car, freightcars, and caboose all head.

It getting dark and it's time for bed, in Kevin Lowe's vintage choo choo story, Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo (Disney Hyperion). With jolly rhymes and the rhythm of the rails, this old-fashioned little train story takes young children gradually and gently toward bedtime, as Daniel Kirk's illustrations mix rounded Playskool-type figures and geometric shapes in soft, muted pastels. Kirk is also the noted illustrator of the popular Library Mouse series, Ten Things I Love About You, and his 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. (See reviews here.)