Studyplans

Locomotive is an informative, nonfiction picture book for older students and even adults.  The story and drawings show what a trip on the newly built railway from Omaha, Nebraska to Sacramento, California would have looked like for a family traveling coach class in 1869. The book won two awards at the time I read it: the Caldecotte Medal and The Robert F. Sibert Honor Book. While I enjoyed all of the book, as an adult I especially appreciated the diagrams and descriptions of how a train works and the labeling of the pictures telling the areas that the drawings show.  The detail in the book plus the lengthy history of the railroad and on the front inside cover and facing page and "A Note on the Locomotives" in the back of the book give additional information for those interested in gaining additional information. The outstanding diagram of how steam power works in the engine was easy to understand.