Iron Horses - Hardcover

Verla Kay

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399231196 ISBN 13: 9780399231193

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, 1999

Synopsis

Welcome aboard! Travel back in time to join the workers of the Union Pacific Railroad as they pounded west and those from the Central Pacific Railroad as they charged east to build the first transcontinental rail line in the United States. They were racing to meet in Utah, and it was high drama all the way. Workers had to burst through rocky outcrops while hanging in baskets and sleep in tents on top of railroad cars or in barracks buried in snow.

Bouncy, short verse highlights the steps it took to finally bring the tracks together, and powerful illustrations capture the landscape and the labor.

About this title

About the Author:

Verla Kay lives in Tekoa, Washington.

Michael McCurdy lives in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

From Publishers Weekly:

Kay (Gold Fever) tackles another chapter in American history, this time with less success, turning her attention to the building of the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s. Here the rollicking rhyming quatrains that served the theme of the legendary forty-niners so well in Gold Fever are not as effective in relating the history of the railway. From inception ("Railroad barons,/ Visions, dreams./ Thinking, planning,/ Plotting schemes") to completion ("Joined in Utah,/ End of race./ Ceremony,/ Spikes in place"), the events along the way get cursory treatment. Kay's language and meter create an energy that carries the story forward like a briskly chugging engine ("Piercing whistles,/ Shrieking wheels./ Hot steam hissing,/ High-pitched squeals"), but readers may miss the significance of verses like "Survey parties,/ Canvas tents./ Levels, transitsA/ Measurements." McCurdy (The Sailor's Alphabet) fills in many of the gaps with his scratchboard and watercolor illustrations. Their stark beauty has the feeling of old-fashioned woodcuts, their drama heightened by the repetitive use of the color black, which runs through the pages like a visual basso continuo. Whether delineating the peaks of a mountain range, the tall baskets used by Chinese workers to scale stone outcroppings or a trestle bridge crossing a valley, the intricate cross-hatchings and strong linear elements of the artwork echo the ever-expanding line of ties and rails that eventually united East and West. Unfortunately, the book ultimately raises more questions than it answers. Ages 4-8. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0399231196
• ISBN 13: 9780399231193
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Michael McCurdy