Trainstop

Starred review from March 24, 2008
In Lehman's (The Red Book
) latest wordless fantasy, a young urban dweller's subway excursion with her family takes an unexpected turn. Much to the girl's surprise, the train magically arrives in an idyllic countryside, where it is flagged down by a tiny, toylike figure. Hopping off (all the grown-ups are dozing), the girl discovers a Lilliputian world in need of a hero: one of their number has crashed his propeller plane into a fruit tree. The girl neatly rescues the aviator, then hops back on the train home with no one the wiser. A horizontal format supports the train theme and reinforces the visual storytelling. As in Lehman's previous works, the crisp, clean drawings and comics-style framings generate visual momentum; the author knows when to give the big picture (literally) and when to break down the action into smaller steps. Kids should enjoy following this story to the very end of the line, where the surprise on the final spreads asks readers to reconsider what they've seen earlier; and it brings an element of mystery, or at least a playful challenge, to the way readers look at the world around them. Ages 4-8.

July 1, 2008
PreS-Gr 2-In this wordless picture book, illustrations done in watercolor, gouache, and ink present the fanciful story of a child's train trip. A girl and her parents board a subway that travels aboveground through a cityscape and then plunges into a tunnel. When the train again emerges into the light, the window suddenly reveals a view of a green countryside with houses and a windmill in the distance. A man wearing striped pants and holding a straw hat brings the train to a halt with a long, bannerlike flag. The child disembarks and is welcomed by a group of miniature people. They lead her to a tree where a plane and its presumed pilot are entangled. With help from a little person, the youngster rescues both the plane and pilot. Waving good-bye, she returns to the train and eventually disembarks with her parents at their urban home. The pilot and a friend fly to her building, giving the girl a gift to commemorate her adventure. The plot of the narrative illustrations is easy to follow. The artwork varies in size from six panels per page to full spreads. The characters' facial features are kept to a minimum, but the placement of dot eyes, dot noses, and line mouths clearly presents their emotions. Lehman's simple fantasy offers a positive lesson on helping others that will stretch readers' imaginations."Lynn K. Vanca, Akron-Summit County Public Library, Richfield, OH"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2008
As in previous picture books, including the Caldecott Honor Book The Red Book (2004), Lehmans spare, inviting artwork tells a wordless story about a childs daydream. Panels in shifting sizes show a little girl boarding a train with her parents and gazing out the windows at a gray city. After the train enters a tunnel, and the windows darken, the girls imagination fills in the view. Suddenly, a summer meadow appears, the train makes a stop, and the girl disembarks into a crowd of Lilliputian folk, who lead her to a pint-size aviator lodged, along with his glider, in a small tree. The girl rescues the tiny fellow and returns to the train, leaving the green world behind. Back in the city, she follows her parents home, but a surprise visit from her miniature friends continues her whimsical dream. Once again, Lehmans spacious, boldly outlined pictures tell a deceptively simple story that demands repeated visits as itseemlessly captures a childs joyful wandering between reality and imagined play.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2008
Once again, Lehman (The Red Book, rev. 9/04; Museum Trip, rev. 5/06; and Rainstorm, rev. 5/07) demonstrates her extraordinary knack for storytelling sans words. Her protagonist here is a young girl headed home on the train with her parents. Gouache, watercolor, and ink illustrations reveal a bleak cityscape and adults dressed in muted tones -- all in pointed contrast to the girl's head-to-toe multicolored outfit. As the girl peers out a window, the train enters a tunnel. Momentary darkness transforms into friendly blue skies and lush green grass as the train slows to make an unscheduled stop. The girl hops off (while the other passengers doze) and helps to rescue one of the Lilliputian-sized inhabitants of this magical land. Soon, the blare of a horn sends her rushing back aboard, and the train exits the tunnel to re-emerge once again in the drab metropolis; a surprise ending, however, adds some color to the girl's world -- and gratification for careful observers. Lehman plays with the size of her illustrations, from smaller window-framed panels to double-page spreads, and all are clean and unfussy. She also has an eye for perspective and proportion, depicting the girl as a giant among her miniature friends, then as a little kid in a sea of adults. But Lehman's true talent is her spot-on depiction of a young child's capacity for crisscrossing the real with the imaginary.

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2008
In this wordless adventure, Lehman's (The Red Book) protagonist is on a train. When it exits a tunnel, the girl sees friendly blue skies and lush grass, and she rescues a Lilliputian-sized inhabitant of this magical land. Lehman has an eye for perspective and proportion. Her depiction of a child's capacity for crisscrossing the real with the imaginary is also spot-on.

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)