Iron Horses by Verla Kay

Iron Horses Reviews

• 
  Brittney

  This book is about the long struggle about building railroads all across the United States. This wasn't my favorite historical fiction book, but I did like the teaching aspects behind it. The men who created the railroads worked long hours in difficult terrain and poor weather conditions. This book is more about facts than an actual story, making the believability very high. It is not directed toward a main character, but rather the characters working on making the railroad tracks. I liked the colors used in the illustrations because it was a tough job to do, so darker colors were used. Overall, this is a decent historical fiction book to teach children about the creation of the first U.S. railroads.
• 
  Melki

  This is an interesting attempt to teach very young children about the building of the transcontinental railroad. The author uses very short rhyming text to describe the actions . . . and sometimes it's not enough information. Perhaps a small "historical insight" box on each page would have been more helpful than saving all the facts for the author's note at the end of the book. Otherwise, this is well done, with amazing illustrations by Michael McCurdy.
• 
  matteo

  Dark and gloomy, but featuring colorful illustrations. The rhyme scheme is... not strong. And there are some references that are probably a few generations out of date and far over the heads of the kids (think of one liners from "Blazing Saddles"). But the book definitely appealed to kids who like trains, and there were lots of questions about how to make a tunnel.
• 
  Stacy

  This is a rhyming book with few words. This book is about the building of the transcontinental railroad. The colored drawings in this book are wonderful and give kids of any age a nice depiction of how hard and complex it was to build the first railroad.
• 
  The Campbell Family

  The rhyming was a bit of a stretch at times. The scratchboard and watercolor illustrations, however, were great.
• 
  Dan Blackley

  Story of the trains that changed America. Great illustrations!
• 
  Rachel

  Most of the nonfiction picture books I have found about the transcontinental railroad have far too many words for preschoolers. Although my son is very obsessed with trains and can sit through some of those long books sometimes, I was excited to find this book. The simple rhyming text make it a quick, easy read, and yet the illustrations and allusions in the text allow room for more exploration if you want to discuss some of the history of the transcontinental railroad in more depth.
• 
  Jill

  A very good picture book. I appreciate the history the author included in a picture book. A picture book! It includes Lincoln and congress and the different nationalities that worked on the railroad and construction hardships and weather and...
  
  It was wonderful. The illustrations were gorgeous and my train-obsessed four-year-old loved it as much as I did.
• 
  Rachel

  Love it! Great illustrations, great vocab inclusion and content for railroad development. Includes Promotory Point. Would be excellent for read aloud-good pics, short to read, and full of fun tongue-twisting, descriptive poetry.
• 
  Colin E.c.

  i love trains and um i have lots of train books at home.