The Prairie Train

About this book

"Once upon a time there was a train that dreamed of being a boat." It was the train that took immigrants seeking a better life in the New World across the endless flat prairies to San Francisco. And it was the train that took Conor a small homesick boy from Ireland on the voyage he would remember for the rest of his life. While on that train Conor dreams of being back in Connemara Ireland with his grandfather when suddenly to his amazement the waving prairie grass becomes the sea and the train on which he is traveling like a boat sails across it right back to his home. How Conor comes to realize that the home hes left behind will always be with him provides a reassuring and deeply satisfying resolution to this poignant tale. The dreamlike paintings by Caldecott Honor artist Eric Rohmann combine with the lyrical text of Irish playwright Antoine Flatharta to make this one of the most memorable books of this--or any--season.