Locomotive

http://brianfloca.com/Images/Locomotive.jpg

Bibliography

Floca, Brian.  Locomotive.  New York: Athenum Books, 2013.  ISBN 9781416994152

Summary

Set in the early days of the American Trans-Continental railway’s birth, Locomotive follows a small family as they travel from Omaha, Nebraska to the California coast.  As they travel across the wide prairie, up, down and through steep mountain passages, the reader uncovers the inner and outer workings of the majestic locomotive the family rides upon.  Locomotive is a beautiful glimpse into the history of the American railroad.

Analysis

Without moving from his seat, the reader is taken on a steam engine journey through Floca’s detailed illustrations and engaging word choice.  The illustrations move beyond the pictures and into the words themselves, with decorative and distinct text that push the reader to feel the “CHUG-CHUG” of the train’s movement and to hear the “HUFFS and HISSES” of the engine.  The reader connects to the traveling children and feels their adventure and excitement as they move across the nation.  At the same time, the intricate workings of the train and the railway system are examined and explained without feeling like a manual or history book.

Each page presents an entire story in and of itself that deserves to be admired and examined.  The illustrations change in size and format, sometimes taking up a double page spread for a single, detailed image while other pages have multiple illustrations, each showing a unique place, feeling or part of the locomotive.  The reader could easily take multiple passes through the book and continue to find new details that would further inform about the locomotives journey.  The youngest readers would enjoy reading the illustrations, as they tell a story by themselves.

For those who want to learn more about the train, Floca’s free verse is the perfect campaign to the amazing illustrations.  His words flow through the book and around the pictures, pulling the reader to the next page while creating even more vivid image of the journey.  Unobtrusive captions inform of the location of many pictures, allowing a mental map to be made.  Together, Floca’s words and images allow this grand historical achievement to come to life for 21^st century readers.

Awards and Reviews

*Caldecott Medal 2013

*Robert F. Sibert Honor Book

*New York Times Best Illustrated Books of the Year

*Wall Street Journal Top 10 Children’s Books of 2013

“Older children will appreciate the wealth of detail and history, while younger ones will be entranced by the appropriately chugga-chugga rhythm of Floca’s free verse and his abundant use of sound effects (playfully emphasized with well-muscled, 19th-century-style typefaces)…. He’s a brilliant, exacting draftsman; he also knows how to give his pictures a cinematic energy, especially in the way he “cuts” from page to page. A spread showing the train crossing a rickety wooden bridge uses a funny visual trick to jolt your eyeballs along with the passengers. Flipping through this book made me smile with pleasure before I even read it.” –New York Times

“Brian Floca weaves a poetic text and dramatic illustrations into an appealing narrative, providing young readers with both factual information about early train travel and a visceral sense of what it must have been like to climb aboard an iron horse in 1869…. Carefully varied perspectives — from spectacular close-ups of wheels meeting tracks to lonely long shots of a toy-size string of cars lost in a vast sea of grass — as well as wildly varying fonts give readers a sense of the thump-and-bump, start-and-stop, rush-and-wait of this week-long excursion.” –The Washington Post

Connections

To connect to social studies, students could make a map showing the path of the trans-continental railway and marking significant points from the book.

Students could examine and compare the historical role of trains in America, using additional texts such as Train to Somewhere or The Orphan Rider.

To connect today with the past, students could read articles about modern day trains, then compare and contrast with the steam locomotive.  Alternatively, they could research the history of the development of rail and make a timeline that tells major milestones.

Brian Floca’s Caldecott acceptance speech

2013 National Book Festival Speech

Floca's Website