The Prairie Train | Antoine O Flatharta | This was a time...when trains were extraordinary

book: The Prairie Train | Antoine O Flatharta

books:

The Prairie Train

	The Prairie Train Antoine O Flatharta Dragonfly Books, 2004 - 40 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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"Once upon a time there was a train that dreamed of being a boat."

It was the train that took immigrants seeking a better life in the New World across the endless flat prairies to San Francisco. And it was the train that took Conor, a small homesick boy from Ireland, on the voyage he would remember for the rest of his life. While on that train, Conor dreams of being back in Connemara, Ireland, with his grandfather when suddenly, to his amazement, the waving prairie grass becomes the sea and the train on which he is traveling, like a boat, sails across it right back to his home. How Conor comes to realize that the home he's left behind will always be with him provides a reassuring and deeply satisfying resolution to this poignant tale. The dreamlike paintings by Caldecott Honor artist Eric Rohmann combine with the lyrical text of Irish playwright Antoine Ó Flatharta to make this one of the most memorable books of this--or any--season.

From the Hardcover edition.

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This was a time...when trains were extraordinary

The professional reviews did not prepare me for the poignancy and beauty of this story. The story is of a young boy, forced to leave behind his home, loved-ones, comfort, and security for the unknown adventure of the new world. His link to the known and familiar was a small wooden boat carved by his grandfather. Just as he was beginning to embrace the wonder and awe of his beautiful adventure the boat slips from his hands and is lost forever in the prairie grass. Despite the attempts of parents to comfort him in his loss, the longing for home and things as they were envelope his thoughts and he will not be comforted.

That night his grandfather comes to him in a dream and counsels him, as only a grandfather can, to leave behind the sadness and look forward to the beauty awaiting at the journey's end. In that brief heart-to-heart talk with his grandfather the boy is lifted and the new day dawns with a fresh resolve to cheerfully move forward.

The story will resonate with anyone who has had to face the unknown or has had to journey to a new world leaving a comfortable world behind. Did I forget to mention there are boats and a train sailing over the ocean and prairie to hold the imagination of a young child? For the young child the loss of the toy boat is a signal that the story is about to take off to new adventures. While my little one understands the loss of a treasured toy he doesn't have the experience to let more subtle concerns interfere with a good story and great pictures.

As for me, it is satisfying to find a book with an underlying message on par with The Little Engine that Could and "I think I can." But this story touches deeper than what the happy little girls and boys on the other side of the mountain can appreciate. Parents and Grandparents will find this a satisfying reading experience with their young explorer. This book gives both the reader and the listener a wonderful feeling, that is, in the words of the inside cover flap, "deeply satisfying."

The artwork is beautiful. The inside covers have a beautiful stylistic map of the journey from Connemara Ireland to San Francisco.

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