Freight Train

This is a beautifully illustrated book. It's layout keeps you moving right along! This book is great for working on colors. So many young children are fascinated with trains. This book associated colors with different train cars. Great book!

This is a book about different colors and the names of the train. The pictures are really neat. This would be good for a young child who is learning there colors.

This book is best for pre-school children. It talks about the different colors of all the train cars. It's good for teaching about colors.

Genre: Informational
Age Appropriateness: primary
Media: computer generated

I think that while this book could fit under realistic fiction, I am choosing to place it under informational. I feel that this book provides a lot of facts and info for the reader. For example it would be a good tool in

Show More

teaching colors to students since each car is a different color and the words are present to help too. We learn a bit about trains and the places they go as well. This book is able to teach as well as entertain.

Show Less

I enjoyed this book. This is a book that boy students would really like since it is about trains, however, it would make a great read aloud as well. This is the first book I have read by Donald Crews and I am excited to read more of his work. A teacher in my practicum recommended his books.

This book is about a bright train as it makes its journey from one place to another. This book could be used in the classroom when discussing transportation.

This simple story is made utterly compelling by the perfect illustrations. If you can use a "Big Book" edition with your groups, they will be spellbound! Works surprisingly well for a wide age range from the youngest lap-sitters through elementary students.

This book belongs in home collections.

This book is a delight. Both the text and illustrations are simple but captivating; they have a greater depth than your average board book. This board book, however, is not only for infants. Toddlers and young school-age children can benefit too. Colors, motion and basic train terminology are

Show More

addressed. I highly recommend this book.

Show Less

Freight Train, by Donald Crews, is a delightful concept book about trains that is also surprisingly educational for adults. Over the course of the book, Crews describes each of the different cars on the eponymous freight train, assigning each car a distinct color; this simultaneously allows

Show More

children to learn the different kinds of train cars and to review their colors. The illustrations seem simple, but are actually fairly detailed: most of the pictures show outlines of the cars with shading for the distinct colors and smudged lines to show movement. While the book is intentionally brief to suit the needs of younger readers, it leaves the audience wanting more; that, in itself, is the mark of great writing.

Citation:
Crews, Donald. Freight Train. New York: Greenwillow, 1978. Print.

Show Less

I guess this title is quite famous in the annals of train picture book history, but I found it boring! Maybe it's just because I don't care about trains and don't read stories to anyone that cares about trains? But if I had a 3-year-old obsessed with trains, I'm sure this would be his/her favorite

Show More

book. I think the book must be noted mostly for its design and the graphic artistry since the text is very simplified. The illustraions are very simplified as well - each car of the train is mono-colored in a bright rainbow hue. When the illustrations show the train speeding by, the colors become striated and begin to blend together - it's interesting looking. Despite the simplified look of the illustrations, the engine car has some very nice details that would appeal to the aforementioned train-obsessed.

Show Less

This book portrays a freight train and all of the different cars that it has. Each car is different and brightly colored and the steam engine is black. After it shows the different colored cars it shows the train traveling by cities, through tunnels, in the day, and in the night. Then, the reader

Show More

is left with a trail of smoke when the train is finally gone.

This book is sure to grab the attention of any young reader with it's bright colors. It is ideal for the typical train loving little boy. It is a great way to teach children the basic colors and about trains. I thought this book was very cute. It had very good illustrations which were simple yet bright and fun. My children at work loved it!

For a classroom extension idea the children could paint there own freight train. The teacher could cover a long table with white butcher paper and have each car that makes up a freight train traced onto the paper. The teacher could assign each child to a car and they would have the responsibility of painting their assigned car.

Another idea would be to create a "freight train" out of the children. The student that is the designated "line leader" for the day could be the steam engine and you could seperate the other children by the color of shirt they are wearing. Have the children line up in the correct order and take a little nature walk outside. As the children walk in the line resembling a train they could make the sound of a train moving along a track (ex. chuga chuga choo choo).

Show Less

This book was a favorite of mine growing up because of the ease at which you could read it. With only one or two words on a page, it isn't overwhelming for beginning readers. However, this book also has colorful and educational pictures that would help a beginning reader be engrossed in what they

Show More

are reading. I feel like this book is particularly good for boys because of the knowledge you gain about freight trains and engines.

Show Less

This book is about a freight train of several different colors. It describes the train and each of its cars as it moves through the country, through cities, across bridges, and daylight and darkness.

I lOVE this book! It is extremely simple but beautifully illustrated. This book is perfect for

Show More

little ones under 4 since it is short and holds their attention so well.

I would love to use this book to promote color discrimination! After reading this book, I could have students draw and color their own train pieces. Then we could hook them together, post them around the class and explore all the different colors, discussing the different hues and values from light to dark colors. Or, we could use the book to introduce directional words/ action words. The train crosses bridges, moves in daylight, in darkness, goes by cities. For older children, we might explore as a class where else the train may have passed in its journey and try to identify some action and directional words as we expand.

Show Less

This book is a Caldecott winnder that doesn't have a real story. It just has descriptions of the different cars of the train.
I liked this book because I know young children will like it for it's color descriptions of the parts of the train. I liked its learning aspect.
Extension ideas include

Show More

setting up a toy train and ask the students to identify the different cars from what they saw in the book. Another idea is to find other train books to teach the children more about the different cars.

Show Less

I think this books is beautiful, it's a concept book, no story to read, just following the different cars of a train across the landscape. Peter did not like it at all, and it didn't catch Liam's eye.

The simple descriptions and illustrations in this book make it appealing to readers and train-lovers of all ages.

There are so many books about trains, but this is the only one that I have read that introduces the specific types of cars. It makes it so much more engaging to see and talk about trains to be able to address the specific cars. I also like the use of color. This would be a great book to use when

Show More

teaching about trains, or transportation, and colors.

Show Less

In this beautifully graphic book on trains for the youngest readers, Crews uses the simplest words to communicate the power and journey of a typical freight train. The illustrations are simple yet bold and eye catching, one of those books to read and enjoy over and over again.

This book tells about a freight train of many different colors and shows us the different places it passes in a day, as well as tells us the different names and parts of a train. This is a concept book, so it doesn't have much of a story. I LOVE this book-a new favorite. It's simply beautiful. The

Show More

design, layout, colors, type.... everything is just perfect.

Show Less

For tddlers to teach the colors of the different part of the train.
Source: Pierce College Library
Age: 2-3

Amazing pictures to visualize the trains moving fast. Good for children learning their colours. 'Going going gone"

This book is a Caldecott Honor book and it is no wonder with these illustrations. The train is filled with colorfull car and each one is expained along with the color. This book is a short read and great for little kids. Color train coming through!

In this beautiful color concept book, the train goes faster and faster until we can't see in any more. My boys loved this book and we had to read it repeatedly to look for the train that was "gone gone!"

This picture book is about the journey of a train that goes through tunnels, by cities, crosses trestles, moves in darkness of the night, and in the daylight. This book teaches many concept simultaneously. It teaches colors, lines, words that are not known by an early reader, and the places a train

Show More

may pass.
The illustrations are Caldecott Honor award winner. Since this is a picture book for early ages, the illustrations play a more important part in the book.

Show Less