I Dream of Trains

This book really made me think. If it was complicated for me to follow, I’m sure it would be difficult for elementary students to follow as well. I Dream of Trains is not your typical, colorful and fun picture book. It is very deep, with tons of symbolism. First things first, this story is told from a slaves points of view. The audience is not told that the main character is a salve, but from certain words and pictures in the books, the reader can infer it. The slave’s dad tells him the story about Casey Jones, a large train that would make long trips through the land, but myth has it, during a large storm one night, it crashed and was never seen again. The main character imagines himself seeing the train, riding on it, etc. We get the idea that the train is symbolism for hope. The slave hopes one day he can get on a train to a new place-hope to one day be free in his country. I’m not sure if elementary students would catch on to this, it took me a few times reading it through to really comprehend the story. However, this would be a good book to use for an example when presenting a lesson on symbolism to my classroom.
Once again, on the last page, Angela Johnson has information about the main theme in the story. Casey Jones was in fact a real conductor of a train that would run from Illinois to Mississippi. It definitely has a lot of history behind it, and I think kids would enjoy learning about how this story is based on an actual true idea. The pictures in this book are very detailed and real. In addition, the author uses dark paint, which creates the sort of the gloomy, mysterious mood.