Saturday, September 7, 2024
The Little Red Caboose
by Marian Potter, illustrated by Tibor Gergely
The Little Red Caboose, written by Marian Potter and illustrated by Tibor Gergely, is a story of acceptance and discovery.
The story is of a caboose, traditionally the last railcar in a train, who is discouraged because people would be so excited to see the first few railcars of a train, but by the time the caboose came, the viewers would be bored and ready to leave. So, naturally, the little red caboose wants to be anything but what it is, a caboose that nobody wanted to wait to see because he came at the end of a train.
Accepting yourself, regardless of what others think of and about you, is one of the hardest things for kids and adults alike to do. Along the tracks of acceptance (pun intended), is the journey of discovery; the journey of discovering good things about yourself can be wonderfully elating as well as empowering. The 24-paged book addresses this with word repetition, onomatopoeia, and a simple storyline with which many kids should be able to sympathize.
What I really enjoyed upon rereading were the illustrations! They are so colorful and lively, with blues, reds, yellows, and greens splashed everywhere! And each double-page spread are meant to be one continuous picture. So you have this big panaroma of mountain life every time you turn a page. It reminds me of Maria’s Salzburg mountains in the 1965 movie The Sound of Music. With that, Mrs. Udderbutter stamps her Hoof of Approval!
Have fun reading!