by Will Hillenbrand. Harcourt Brace, 1999.
What happens at the zoo in the early morning hours? The familiar song, "Down by the Station," provides an answer as Will here expands and illustrates it. "Puff, puff, toot, toot, off we go" with the engine driver as he makes his rounds picking up the baby animals for the children's zoo. The strong left-to-right motion of the artwork and the three clocks flying from the neck of the train driver underscore the urgency of the job. Small mishaps like a bumped passenger may for a moment divert the reader's attention, but the train rolls on. |
 Starting From Sketch Inside the Picture Book of Will Hillenbrand
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The happy journey
is marked by items familiar to children: a small tag-along train,
baby panda's favorite blanket, and a large playground that is the
children's zoo. Overhead a small red balloon guides the way. The
lines of the story flow upward with upturned animal tails and beaks,
a spurt of water, smoke from the train smokestack and the persistent
smiles on both animal and human characters. The result is a happy ride with pictures that evoke the harmony of the song that it illustrates. Astute readers will note the small hints on each page that predict the train's next stop en route. As the animals arrive at the children's zoo, they are joined by the day's first zoo visitors: a group of children descending a school bus. Back-to-schoolers may sense the analogy with leaving their parents for a bus ride to a delightful destination.
Reviews Amazon.com "Down by the station, early in the morning," before any visitors arrive, who exactly is riding that zoo train? Hop aboard and find out! See the elephant calf waving good-bye to Mommy and Daddy. And there's a pink flamingo chick, ready to ride. Who's this sleepy black-and-white cub? Still wrapped in a blanket, the panda isn't quite awake yet. The train chugs merrily along, picking up baby animal passengers. But beware! There's danger in the pond beside the tracks. Will the seal pup and baby penguin escape from the circling crocodiles? Will Hillenbrand, illustrator of Counting Crocodiles and The House That Drac Built, has always been curious about what goes on in a zoo before opening hours. Adapting a traditional children's song, Hillenbrand depicts his charming vision, and presents a parallel journey of a school bus approaching the zoo while the train is making its rounds. Children, as diverse as the chicks and cubs and kits, bound out of the bus to seesaw with the elephant and play kickball with the seal. And the napping panda? He's found his match in a blanket-toting boy. "Puff, puff, toot, toot, off we go!" Basic song notation is included in the back for budding musicians. (Ages 4 to 8) --Emilie Coulter From Kirkus Reviews Hillenbrand takes license with the familiar song (the traditional words and music are reproduced at the end) to tell an enchanting story about baby animals picked up by the train and delivered to the children's zoo. The full-color drawings are transportingly jolly, while the catchy refrain``See the engine driver pull his little lever''is certain to delight readers. Once the baby elephant, flamingo, panda, tiger, seal, and kangaroo are taken to the zoo by the train, the children representing various ethnic backgrounds, and showing one small girl in a wheelchair arrive. This is a happy book, filled with childhood exuberance. (Picture book. 3-6) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. From Horn Book An early morning train ride is the occasion for a spirited escapade in this cheery cumulative story based on the traditional old song. Beginning with the lines "Down by the station / early in the morning," the engineer and his passenger, a woman dressed in explorer garb, make several stops for their baby animal riders, and as each new animal boards, another sound is added to the "puff, puff / toot, toot" of the engine's refrain. The brightly-colored, mixed-media illustrations on glossy pages endow the animals with distinct personalities. A shy young panda clutches his security blanket as he waits for the train to arrive. While his mother watches anxiously, a tiger cub blithely jumps aboard and is soon frolicking with the panda. There's a brief moment of concern when the seal and penguin dive into an alligator-infested pool-although it's hard to imagine any child being frightened by these smiling creatures, and the renegades are rescued soon enough. Sharp-eyed preschoolers will note the visual clues hinting at which animal will be picked up next, and those who can read will notice the signs announcing the same. The train arrives at its destination, the children's zoo, followed by a schoolbus full of-what else?-children, and everyone disembarks for a day of play. An enjoyable, participatory adventure for the nursery school set, with the music for the song on the last page. -- Copyright © 1999 The Horn Book, Inc. All rights reserved.
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