The Prairie Train

The Prairie Train
Author: Antoine O Flatharta
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2014-04-30
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0385756151

"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.

Prairie Train

Prairie Train
Author: Marsha Wilson Chall
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2003-09
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN:

A young girl experiences the thrill of her first train ride when she takes the Great Northern from the country to visit her grandmother in the city.

Orphan Train Girl

Orphan Train Girl
Author: Christina Baker Kline
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 127
Release: 2017-05-02
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0062445960

This young readers’ edition of Christina Baker Kline’s #1 New York Times bestselling novel Orphan Train follows a twelve-year-old foster girl who forms an unlikely bond with a ninety-one-year-old woman. Adapted and condensed for a young audience, Orphan Train Girl includes an author’s note and archival photos from the orphan train era. This book is especially perfect for mother/daughter reading groups. Molly Ayer has been in foster care since she was eight years old. Most of the time, Molly knows it’s her attitude that’s the problem, but after being shipped from one family to another, she’s had her fair share of adults treating her like an inconvenience. So when Molly’s forced to help an a wealthy elderly woman clean out her attic for community service, Molly is wary. But from the moment they meet, Molly realizes that Vivian isn’t like any of the adults she’s encountered before. Vivian asks Molly questions about her life and actually listens to the answers. Soon Molly sees they have more in common than she thought. Vivian was once an orphan, too—an Irish immigrant to New York City who was put on a so-called "orphan train" to the Midwest with hundreds of other children—and she can understand, better than anyone else, the emotional binds that have been making Molly’s life so hard. Together, they not only clear boxes of past mementos from Vivian’s attic, but forge a path of friendship, forgiveness, and new beginnings.

Train Station Bride

Train Station Bride
Author: Holly Bush
Publisher: Holly Bush Books
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2012-03-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 162095527X

1887 Debutante Julia Crawford endures a lifetime of subtle ridicule as the plump, silly daughter of a prominent Boston family. Julia strikes out on her own to gain independence, traveling to the Midwest to marry an aging shopkeeper and care for his mother. Julia finds her new home rough and uncivilized after the sophistication of a big city, while closely held secrets threaten to ruin Julia's one chance at love. Jake Shelling was sixteen and grew up quick when his parents died from influenza on the North Dakota prairie. Left with a half-cleared farm and two young sisters, he spent little time on his own needs . . . until now. At thirty-five, he figured it was high time to have some sons and a mail order bride would suit him just fine. No expectations of love, just a helpmate from sturdy stock, ready for farm life.Will fate and chance play a trick on Julia and Jake?

Locomotive

Locomotive
Author: Brian Floca
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 64
Release: 2013-09-03
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1442485221

The Caldecott Medal Winner, Sibert Honor Book, and New York Times bestseller Locomotive is a rich and detailed sensory exploration of America’s early railroads, from the creator of the “stunning” (Booklist) Moonshot. It is the summer of 1869, and trains, crews, and family are traveling together, riding America’s brand-new transcontinental railroad. These pages come alive with descriptive details of the journey: the sounds, speed, and strength of the mighty locomotives; the work that keeps them moving; and the thrill of travel from plains to mountain to ocean. Come sit inside the caboose, feel the heat of the engine, watch the landscape race by. Come ride the rails, come cross the young country!

All Aboard!

All Aboard!
Author: Jim Loomis
Publisher: Prima Lifestyles
Total Pages: 404
Release: 1995
Genre: Travel
ISBN:

Longtime rail enthusiast and travel writer Jim Loomis has assembled a practical guide that lauds the joys of stress-free train travel. With information about booking, schedules, on-board etiquette, and more, the book also features a fascinating history of railroading in North America. Maps.

Train Dreams

Train Dreams
Author: Denis Johnson
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Total Pages: 126
Release: 2011-08-30
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1429995203

A New York Times Notable Book for 2011 One of The Economist's 2011 Books of the Year One of NPR's 10 Best Novels of 2011 From the National Book Award-winning author Denis Johnson (Tree of Smoke) comes Train Dreams, an epic in miniature, and one of Johnson's most evocative works of fiction. Suffused with the history and landscapes of the American West—its otherworldly flora and fauna, its rugged loggers and bridge builders—this extraordinary novella poignantly captures the disappearance of a distinctly American way of life. It tells the story of Robert Grainer, a day laborer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century—an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainer struggles to make sense of this strange new world. As his story unfolds, we witness both his shocking personal defeats and the radical changes that transform America in his lifetime.

Train to Somewhere

Train to Somewhere
Author: Eve Bunting
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 37
Release: 2000-04-17
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0547346107

A young girl hopes to find her mother as she rides an Orphan Train to find a new life out west in “this finely crafted, heart-wrenching story” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Marianne, heading west with fourteen other children on an Orphan Train, is sure her mother will show up at one of the stations along the way. When her mother left Marianne at the orphanage, hadn't she promised she'd come for her after making a new life in the West? Stop after stop goes by, and there's no sign of her mother in the crowds that come to look over the children. No one shows any interest in adopting shy, plain Marianne, either. But that's all right: She has to be free for her mother to claim her. Then the train pulls into its final stop, a town called Somewhere . . . An American Library Association, Notable Children’s Book ALA Booklist Editor’s Choice Jefferson Cup Award Honor Book

Nothing Like It In the World

Nothing Like It In the World
Author: Stephen E. Ambrose
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 468
Release: 2001-11-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780743203173

The story of the men who build the transcontinental railroad in the 1860's.

Orphan Train Rider

Orphan Train Rider
Author: Andrea Warren
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 84
Release: 1996
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780395913628

Discusses the placement of over 200,000 orphaned or abandoned children in homes throughout the Midwest from 1854 to 1929 by recounting the story of one boy and his brothers.