Trains

All aboard for this bold and graphic visual history of trains and railroads by award-winning author-illustrator Lynn Curlee—now with a new look!

A symbol of adventure and possibility, trains have been getting people and things to where they need to go for almost two centuries! First, steam engines hissed billowing clouds into the air, then gleaming diesel locomotives pulled boxcars, freight cars, and sleek passenger cars north, south, east, and west.

The story of how trains began barreling across the landscape is one of new machines, new inventions, new jobs, and new hopes. Railroad travel started with steam-powered wagons on a tramway and developed into a technology that would change the day-to-day life of Americans in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—and forever connect one coast to another.

Lynn Curlee was educated as an art historian and worked as a fine artist for many years before he began to make children’s books. Three of his books, Capital, Liberty, and Rushmore, were chosen by the Barbara Bush Literacy Campaign as their Book of the Year in three consecutive years. Mr. Curlee has won numerous awards for his work, including but not limited to a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book (Brooklyn Bridge), Orbis Pictus Award (Rushmore), ALA Notable Books for Children (Liberty), and Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year (Parthenon). His other books include Ballpark, Trains, Mythological Creatures, and Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. He lives in Norwich, Connecticut, with his partner and two Great Danes. Find out more on Instagram @LynnCurlee.