I've Been Working on the Railroad: An American Classic - Hardcover

Matched with perky illustrations, the spirited, on-the-job lyrics to this ever-popular American folk song serve as narrative to a lighthearted, contemporary train journey that pays homage to traditional railroad imagery. A singing trio-banjo and harmonica players and a guitarist-climb on board, setting the musical atmosphere. Driven by a cheerful, waving engineer, a boy and his dog, the train chugs its way through idyllic, pastel-colored suburbs, a billboarded desert and hilly, rural expanses. The line "Can't you hear the whistle blowing?" is humorously aimed at a herd of wary-looking cows grazing on and around the tracks, while the legendary horn-blowing Dinah is proprietress of a whistle-stop cafe (painted an eye-catching pink, it's visible from a distance). The musical trio joins her in the kitchen for a rousing, customer-participation song and dance finale. Complete lyrics and musical score are included in the back, along with brief mention of the song's late-19th-century provenance. A worthy interpretation. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 2^-6. Buoyant is the word for this picture-book version of the familiar folk song. The lyrics form the text, while the illustrations offer a mild storyline, in which a boy and his dog ride up front with the engineer as the train pulls out of a city station, travels through the countryside, and stops for a visit at Dinah's Cafe. But it's not the plot that makes this book sing; it's the ebullient spirit of the illustrations. Before the train even gets out of town, the harmonica-and banjo-playing trainmen are floating out in the margins. By the end, Dinah's fried eggs and bacon are flying through the air, and oddly enough, it all seems to make sense--at least, the way dreams make sense. Westcott's naive ink drawings, washed with watercolors in progressively vibrant hues, create a mood that makes this book almost impossible to just read: it really must be sung. The music (with simple guitar chords) and a short note on the song's history are appended. Carolyn Phelan