This picture book takes children of all ages on a trolley-ride dream adventure. Featuring the extraordinary illustrations of Caldecott Honoree, Marvin Bileck, this book is a dream caught on paper with the sense of magic and wonder and unfettered imagination of a child. As sleep starts the journey into the blue, marvelous threads unravel dreamy images out of the blue revealing animals, far-off places, a circus, games, toys, wind, rain, a touch of this and a touch of that, words and wordplay. A poem accompanies the whimsical illustrations, perfectly capturing the sense of awe and excitement of childhood.
Marvin Bileck was an artist, educator, and a designer and illustrator of children’s books. Rain Makes Applesauce earned a Caldecott Honor. Other titles include Penny, Sugarplum and A Walker in the City. He was a master printmaker whose work has been described by critics and art historians as comparable to such artists as Holbein and Rembrandt.
Ashley Bryan is an author, artist, and teacher who was the first African American man to both write and illustrate a book for children. His work has earned widespread recognition, including the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award and several Coretta Scott King awards and honors. His two volumes of collections of Black American spirituals, published by Alazar Press, Walk Together Children and I’m Going To Sing are his seminal works with the spirituals, forming the foundation of so much of his imagery with this subject.
Marvin Bileck was an artist, educator, and a designer and illustrator of children’s books. Rain Makes Applesauce earned a Caldecott Honor. Other titles include Penny, Sugarplum and A Walker in the City. He was a master printmaker whose work has been described by critics and art historians as comparable to such artists as Holbein and Rembrandt.
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Grace Oliff –
Gr 2–4—The late Marvin Bileck was a prolific illustrator perhaps best known for his Caldecott Honor Rain Makes Applesauce (Holiday House, 1985). He had been contacted by Virginia Woolf’s estate to illustrate the only children’s story she ever wrote. After 10 years, the estate withdrew the contract, leaving Bileck with numerous illustrations but no text. Enter his close friend, noted illustrator Bryan. The two collaborated on fresh text, and after decades the book has finally reached publication. There is no linear plot here, rather a poetic dreamlike fantasy: “Our dreams and our fancies/take off in our play/What’s real, what’s imagined/No one can say.” The succeeding 28 verses are presented in a small but readable font on the first two pages with just a few spot illustrations. It’s helpful to read them through several times, as the rest of the book interweaves those same verses with richly but often minutely detailed illustrations and the text wandering in and out of the pictures in a small, very pale font that is frequently obscured by those pictures. The text contains many interesting images, but they occasionally seem to be quite random. How “seek no further/marry me/meandering maid/in my apple tree” connects with this trolley ride is difficult to ascertain. VERDICT This lovely book is best presented one-on-one by an enthusiastic adult. For large or specialized collections.
—Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ
JAN SPIVEY GILCHRIST –
This is the work of two masters, who will take children on an exciting passage through time and illusion with their careful blending of words and pictures.
—JAN SPIVEY GILCHRIST, Illustrator and Author, Coretta Scott King Award
LESLIE TRYON –
What a joy to read and reread! Truly a treasure! Bileck and Bryan will bewitch generations of readers.
—LESLIE TRYON, Author and Illustrator
HENRIETTA MAYS SMITH –
This trolley ride took me back to my own childhood, complete with the sound memory of the clank of change in the fare box. Now, the special stop I’d like to make is when the trolley passes Timbuctu. I fell in love with the verse, “Tiger tiptoes to Timbuctu to talk to the turtle till ten to two.”
—HENRIETTA MAYS SMITH, Professor Emerita, University of South Florida, Eric Carle Honor, Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award
Kirkus –
“With echoes of Lear and Stevenson, this journey into the land of dreams pairs a detailed Old World setting with a pulsing four-beat rhythm to pull readers into its magical realm . . . . Masterful wordplay, alliteration, imagery, and rhyme contribute to this 29-stanza poem, printed in its entirety at the opening and then woven throughout the densely populated pages in a hand-printed text . . . . Bileck and Bryan capture the stuff of dreams in this mesmerizing and multifaceted pageant.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Holly Scudero –
“Lines of prose are scattered among the illustrations, which will dazzle the eyes and stimulate the imagination. By Trolley Past Thimbledon Bridge has literally been decades in the making, but this beautiful picture book has been completely worth the wait.”
—Holly Scudero, sanfranciscobookreview.com