Snakes on a Train by Kathryn Dennis

Abstract

Reviewed by: Snakes on a Train by Kathryn Dennis Elizabeth Bush Dennis, Kathryn Snakes on a Train; written and illus. by Kathryn Dennis. Feiwel, 2019 [32p] ISBN 978-1-250-30440-7 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R 1-4 yrs “The conductor takes the tickets/as the snakes all slither on./ The tracks are checked./ The whistle blows. It’s time to move along./ Hissssssssssssssss goes the sound of the train.” So opens this new variant on the perennially popular combination of trains and picture books; in this title, a simple trek on the tracks gains momentum from the giggle-worthy passengers and crew who enjoy the ride in a way only legless, armless, tubular critters can. Candy-bright snakes—reduced here to tapered shapes with googly eyes—hand over (so to speak) tickets with their mouths; a signal snake toots the horn with the tip of his pointed tail, and passengers glimpsed through the train windows read a propped-up book, share a propped-up sno-cone through straws, or simply enjoy the view. Any journey is more exciting when there’s a bit of trouble, and a pink pig has tumbled off the back of the train and lies, startled but stoic, upside down on the tracks. No worries; the brake snake hangs upside down off the emergency pull to pick up the errant rider, and this show is back on the road. A pitch-black tunnel with pairs of googly eyes glowing in the dark, a sleek railroad [End Page 202] bridge with even sleeker water, fish, and scalloped waves below, and a platform with snakes popping out of holes to greet the arrival are rendered in stylish shapes on a plain white backdrop, and final spreads of snakes coiled up to sleep under an “S” constellation of stars provide just the right wind-down for a bedtime story. Copyright © 2019 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois