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Searching... Mount Angel Public Library | E MOSS | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Since age sixteen, Bee has loaded freight for the Union Pacific Railroad, all the while dreaming of being an engineer. Bee loves the railroad: from the roar and clatter of the wheels against the track to the names like True Heart, Roaring Wolf, and Coyote Special to the low blast of the whistle-- whoooo-whoooo. Then one day, Bee gets the chance to drive the True Heart all the way from Cheyenne to Chicago. A seamless mix of history and fiction, True Heart is a story of the American frontier, of wanting something so much you can't think of anything else--and of the little-known work of pioneer women who made the American railroad a reality.
Author Notes
Marissa Moss began as an illustrator of children's books. She is the author and illustrator of the Amelia series. She has written and illustrated more than 20 children's books including Amelia's Notebook, which was named a 1997 American Booksellers Association Pick of the Lists book. Her other books include Regina's Big Mistake and Knick Knack Paddywack.
My Notebook (with Help from Amelia) also won the 2000 Parent Council Outstanding Award Informational and Oh Boy, Amelia! won the 2001 Parent's Guide to Children's Media Award and the 2002 Children's Choice Award.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-4-An engineer for the Union Pacific at the turn of the century reminisces about the event that made the dream of driving trains become a reality. As a freight loader, Bee took every opportunity to sit in the cab and watch the engineers work, and was occasionally offered a chance to drive from one station to the next. One day on a run from San Francisco to Chicago, a group of bandits shot and injured the engineer at the controls. Bee volunteered to complete the run and the station manager agreed, marking that day as the start of a new career for Bee. This comfortably paced story has a familiar feel to it and a secret that will disclose itself to attentive readers: Bee is a woman. The use of nicknames throughout and an avoidance of gender pronouns draw the attention to the heart of the story-Bee's dream-rather than her sex. Accompanying the author's note at the end of the book is a black-and-white photograph of a group of female freight loaders that inspired this book. The mixed-media illustrations are realistic but softened with sepia tones, as if with age; and except for a couple of double-page spreads, full-page illustrations on the right face text on faux-stained parchment backgrounds. Visually and textually, this quiet story is a treasure.-Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Moss (Rachel's Journal: The Story of a Pioneer Girl; Amelia's Notebook) uses her flair for capturing girls' voices to tell a remarkable and exhilarating story. A turn-of-the-century photograph of an all-women work crew for a railroad inspired this tale of a teenager's first time driving a train, an experience that launches her career as an engineer. Newly orphaned in 1893, 16-year-old Bee takes a job loading freight on the railways to support her eight siblings. Moss evokes the love of trains that keeps Bee in the engineer's cab every spare moment, watching and asking questions, and her joy at driving for the first time, when an injured engineer and a trainful of impatient passengers pressure the station manager to give her a chance. On the final spread, Bee recalls that inaugural experience: "I felt so free and strong, galloping across whole states in my iron horse, blowing my whistle for all the sky to hear." For his first children's book, Payne uses mixed media in a crisp, realistic style. He so meticulously defines the action that the illustrations seem frozen in time, oddly tranquil: unexpected angles and tight close-ups create arresting compositions. This book will be welcomed by a wide audience: train lovers, frontier buffs, all girlsÄand any adult who, like Bee, can "remember wanting something so much you can't think of anything else." Ages 5-9. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Bee, an orphan raising eight siblings in the West in 1893, longs to engineer the trains on which she loads freight, and one day her chance arrives. Caricatures in the illustrations effectively complement this well-told narrative. The author's note has an accompanying photograph of women railroad workers in California who inspired the story. From HORN BOOK Fall 1999, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A deeply satisfying story of longing and hard work fulfilled, inspired by an obscure historical photograph. Bee loves the railroad: the sound and color, the sweep past the wide world into the cities, the wonderful engine names, such as True Heart and the Coyote Special. When her parents die, she finds that, with eight siblings to care for, loading freight for the Union Pacific in Cheyenne in 1893 pays far better than taking in wash. She's strong, and gets hired to load the trains. But what Bee loves most is to pepper Ole Pete, the engineer, with questions; he lets her drive the train a bit, back it up, and couple it to other cars. When Bee gets the chance to drive a train, she takes two of her female crew to stoke the engines, ``blowing my whistle for all the sky to hear.'' The language is homespun and direct, with Bee's desire and love for the railroad clear. The text faces the full-page illustrations; occasional double-page spreads float the text on top of the image, as in one dramatic scene where ghostly wagon trains parallel the train on its run. The mixed media paintings have a burnished quality, while the textures are beautifully tactile. The text never mentions Bee's gender, but Moss provides a note about her inspiration and preserves another tessera from the mosaic of women's history. A rousing and romantic tale. (Picture book. 5-10)
Booklist Review
Gr. 2^-4, younger for reading aloud. A young girl takes over the wheel, proves herself a hero, and saves the day in two stories set a century ago. Avi's simple chapter book in the I Can Read series takes place on a boat in the waterways between New Jersey and New York in the 1880s. The first mate gets sick, and schoolgirl Abigail must step into his place and take over steering their small freight boat with a sailing ship in tow up the crowded Hudson River and through the harbor in New York City. The action-packed pictures in line and watercolor are an integral part of the story, and new readers will be caught by the exciting details of Abigail's maneuvers as she handles her task with the help of her younger brother, and narrowly avoids a series of collisions with the steam-driven ships and the sailing ships in the busy thoroughfare. Avi says in an afterword that the story (which he guesses is true) is based on an account published in a children's magazine of the time. Moss' hero, Bee, tells her own story of working on the railroad since she was 16 in 1893, loading freight with her buddies for the Union Pacific in Cheyenne, Wyoming, always dreaming of being an engineer. She watches the drivers closely, asks lots of questions, badgers them to let her drive--and then one day she gets her chance when the engineer is wounded by bandits, and the station manager allows Bee to drive the train. Since then she has driven trains across the continent, "joining together the two ends of this great nation." Bee's first-person narrative expresses the rhythm and excitement of the railroad, how she loves to hear the clatter and roar of the trains. With extraordinary depth, Payne's brown-tone, full-page paintings combine realism and romance, showing long views of the trains steaming through the prairie, close-ups of the amazing machinery, pictures of Bee and her grinning crew, and then the triumphant scene of Bee proud and strong when at last she climbs into the cab in an engineer's cap. In an afterword, Moss says her story was inspired by a museum show, Women and the American Railroad, and by women's journals of the time. --Hazel Rochman