  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 10/15/2012 From her viewpoint as a child, Thomas remembers her family’s migration from Oklahoma to California in 1948. Clear free verse captures the excitement of the journey—the steaming train, the hissing wheels, the long lonesome whistle—while Cooper’s beautiful unframed pastel artwork in sepia tones shows a puffing steam engine pulling a train and the young girl watching the passing landscape, including “a cactus raising / hairy arms to catch the / last light from the falling sun,” while her brothers play marbles in the crowded aisle. From the title on, everything about this story is upbeat: even the sweating migrant workers in their red bandannas “unbend their backs / to wave back.” Finally, the train reaches San Francisco, where huge ships sit anchored “like iron mountains.” In a long afterword, Thomas celebrates the Golden State, which is still her home. The personal words and pictures do a great job of celebrating diversity: “all ages, all races . . . harmony in ever-changing rhythms.” - Copyright 2012 Booklist. Loading...
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