This Train is Bound for Glory

This Train is Bound for Glory by Alice Faye Duncan and illustrated by Paul Kellam reintroduces the 1920s  American gospel song that celebrates a train loaded with jubilant passengers bound for heaven. 

Children will love singing with the interactive refrains and lyrical text as the train transports characters from widely diverse nationalities, while picking up more along the way.  The story begins like an ordinary train ride, but soon becomes magical as it whooshes through a colorful journey across prairies and into the glorious sky.

By the book’s end, children will be on their feet, singing, dancing, and wishing they could join this amazing train as it climbs higher and higher. Whether readers are spiritual or not, this book offers priceless, carefree moments of freedom, joy, and imaginative possibilities!  

A Picture Book Resource

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

You can read a review of Louie by the famous Ezra Jack Keats on my IG page. It’s amazing how a book written years ago still speaks to the challenges of our times.

I believe it’s important to continue reviewing historical works (picture books included) to help us analyze our current situations because they inform how we will move into the future. To that end, click to see an interesting article about a resource that lists 7,000 free to read historical children’s books. Check out a few and compare them to the books we buy today. Let us know what you discover about how things have changed and remained the same in the comments.