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Crossing
Philip Booth
Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline
Picture Book/poetry
Ages 3 and up
Candlewick Press, 2001, 0-7636-1420-3
  A train is coming and the striped crossing bar has come down. We have to wait until the train passes, a captive audience to this spectacle of moving steel, clacking wheels, rolling cars, and for the small boys and girls who are watching, a feeling of wonder and delight for there is so much to see and imagine.
  There are boxcars with different labels printed on their sides, each one telling us where the car is from; there are automobiles, steel piping, coke, and coal; there are even live cows from Santa Fe. And as we watch and imagine where the cars came from and where they are going we can count, on and on and on: "fifty-nine, sixty," "eighty-eight" and "ninety-seven." Until, at last, we see the caboose.
  Philip Booth catches the wonder and excitement of this time and he also uses words and rhythm to great effect to capture the sense and movement of the train.
  The artist presents this extraordinary experience from many points of view, many perspectives and angles, and through the eyes of many different watchers. He and the author have turned a simple event into a remarkable one full of promise and pleasure, and we are reminded of how exciting watching trains go by can be. This unique book will delight both fans of trains and illustration connoisseurs, for Bagram Ibatoulline has truly created a work of art.

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