William and the Night Train

William and the Night Train by Mij Kelly, ill. by Alison Jay

            Picture book—Grades PreS-K

            Rating: 4 out of 5 stars  

            Summary: William and his mother, along with an array of people and animals, board the night train on its way to tomorrow. William is wide awake and wants to get to tomorrow quickly, but the train won’t leave until he is asleep.

            Reading William and the Night Train made me feel like a kid again. Much of the story follows William as he wildly bounces from train car to train car and is simply too excited for tomorrow to come that he cannot go to sleep. I remember being tucked in by my parents but feeling the exact same anticipation as William and wishing that it could just be tomorrow already! Especially when we would be leaving the next morning for our summer vacation, I know that I spent many nights as a child wide awake in bed and starring through the dark thinking about everything that we had planned for our trip. I also connected with William’s experience as his mother tells him the quickest way to tomorrow is to close your eyes and go to sleep. It’s funny that I can recall my mom saying the same thing to me, and I would wake up the next morning with the realization that she was right—the night flew by once I was asleep. The motif of this story—a train taking you to tomorrow—reminded me of The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. The charm of this book also stems from the disproportionate characters and array of circus animals that board the train along with William. It makes me want to hop on board and join the fun—I wouldn’t want to sleep either with all of the excitement around!

            I would definitely consider using this book in my future classroom. After sharing it with a couple of students, however, I do have some hesitations. The two second grade girls that I read this to really enjoyed the story and especially loved the illustrations. They had fun pointing out the different people boarding the train and seeing that there were little piglets in one of the cars. However, it took them a while to grasp the idea of a train going to “tomorrow” as a time frame rather than as a location, since that is what they know of where trains take you. One girl was laughing as she asked me if “tomorrow” was really the name of a city somewhere, and so I did my best to explain the train ride as a metaphor for going to sleep. In the end, I think they both understood; however, I would discuss this concept more thoroughly as we read through if I were to use this story in my classroom. I think it would also be helpful to have a class discussion and have students share a time when they were so excited that they couldn’t fall asleep, and maybe that would help set the stage for this story. To fit it in with a certain theme, I might read it when we are coming up to a holiday or break and tie it in with plans that students have during their time off. Otherwise, I think this book would also be great just as a fun read-aloud at the end of the school day.