Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Traveling by Train by Pierre Winters -- OPTIONAL

Winters, Pierre Traveling by Train, illustrated by Tineke Meirink. NONFICTION. Clavis Publishing, 2017. $16.95. Content: G.

This book, which is translated from its original Dutch, instructs young children about train travels. It describes the different types of trains, how to buy a ticket, and how train stations work. The occasional flaps add a little interactivity. Notes at the end contain two train poems, directions for a step-by-step train-drawing and conductor's whistle, a mini-quiz, and several matching games.

The illustrations are colorful, and the information is likely to be interesting to young train enthusiasts. However, its blatant gender stereotypes and lack of diversity earn it a demotion from ADVISABLE to OPTIONAL. For example, one extra-wide page spread shows a large, bustling, and very clean and modern train station. Out of the fifty characters shown, not a single one is a person of color. Yet on the overflowing train with people hanging off the sides and top, every person has darker skin. Another notable dark-skinned character is shown, in great detail, not planning ahead and missing the train -- something which the text then scolds him for. Engineers are relentlessly shown and referred to as men, whereas conductors may be either men or women. And in the matching section at the back, the elderly female passenger is matched with a giant, vibrantly pink purse. Why not luggage since, you know, she is doing some long-distance traveling?

Could our impressionable students please have books that banish stereotypes instead of further entrenching them?

Pre-K, EL (K-3) -- OPTIONAL. Reviewed by Sydney G., K-6 Library Media Specialist

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