Down By the Station by Will Hillenbrand

Two Reviews from the staff this time. New Mom and Old Mom both love this one. Toot! Toot!

"Did you ever wonder who rides the train early in the morning, before the zoo opens?"
[from flyleaf]

#1 (Pam) Well the answer is a variety of fun baby animals who carry on in the silliest way. And this nice little book captures it all. With warm, colorful art and a catchy rhyme, it can't help but draw in young children by showing them how every day the train comes and picks up all the baby animals to get them into place before the kids arrive at the zoo.

The first on the little train is the lady zookeeper with her pet monkey and bird (we are pretty sure it's a penguin). After that the train proceeds to pickup a variety of baby animals: elephant, flamingo, panda, tiger, seal, and kangaroo.

And all the time that the zoo train is picking up the animal babies, a school bus is bringing human babies to the zoo. In fact, the last pages show the children and the animals playing together. The zookeeper and the teacher are holding a jump rope while a girl and a joey are jumping.

Great fun. I like that they label each animal baby appropriately as cub, pup, or joey, etc. There is lots for parents and children to look at, and it is a good opportunity to use the repetitive text for a little memory practice.

The Accelerated Reading (wikipedia entry) designation for Down by the Station is 2.1 which means that the vocabulary and syntax is appropriate for children reading at an early second grade level.

#2 (Shan) Anyone whose read books to children knows the power of a catchy song melody to interest and involve a child in the story. I've always loved reading aloud books that feature song lyrics for precisely this reason-- it allows me to get the maximum interest without the effort that can go into a more text-driven read. Many people will already be familiar with some version of Down By the Station. It's a catchy and simple tune that shouldn't be too hard to pick up, even for parents without much of a singing voice.

Some of Will Hillenbrand's wordings may differ from the version you know, but the book itself is a charming romp through the zoo as the conductor picks up baby animals from all over the grounds and brings them ultimately to the petting zoo at the end of the story, where the children all enter in to play with them. Older kids will be able to name the animals before you sing the names. As the list of sounds increases, I tend to add some kind of hand motion for each sound, so as to increase audience participation. So for instance, "puff, puff" gets clenched hands opening up like a small puff of air being released, and "toot, toot" gets the action a hand pulling on a chain for the horn. You can make up your own motions for each sound, or not as you choose.

The artwork is bright and colorful and cartoon-style, though the images themselves have a softness to them that allows this to also work well for a baby book. The amount of detail in these pictures will probably make the illustrations harder for a group to see, and may not interest a younger toddler as much, but the song lyrics and the fact that this is a train book usually make up for that. At the back of the book, the song lyrics and musical score is provided for those who would require or are interested in the melody of the tune. I'd recommend this book for 0-5 year olds and have yet to find a child that doesn't enjoy the book. The library copies are all well loved and need frequent replacing. Mr. Hillenbrand is a master of children's books and many of his creations are available for puchase!

For those who enjoy this story, you may want to also try out books like The Seals on the Bus by Lenny Hort, and Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow--two song books that are also favorites of mine!

Happy Reading! ^_^ Shanshad