Parents' Choice Awards : Audio : Audio Book
The Journey of Billy Boom Train
Fall 2009 Audio BookReview:
Nicely executed in rhyme and rhythm with music and ambient sound effects, this original tale by Brian Batts tells of an odyssey of discovery taken in a time past by a lone hobo named Billy Boom Train. Guided by the music that he hears in his head--music sparked by the sounds of the world around him--Billy searches for "a place to belong," after years of hopping boxcars, sleeping under the stars and waking "to a ground wet with morning dew."
Before his happy journey's end, Billy has earned a dollar a day working with a track-laying crew, watched a magician perform wonders in a small town, enjoyed a can of beans (luckily al fresco), traveled over hill, and dale and crossed a river on a steamboat. Batts, who also produced, includes an oddly soothing final track that offers nearly 14 minutes of a train chug-chugging down the tracks, with a little harmonica-playing and a few footsteps and voices along the way.
Editor's note: This text refers to the audiobook edition.
Lynne Heffley ©2009 Parents' Choice
A long-time Parents' Choice music critic, Lynne was a staff writer for 25 years at the Los Angeles Times where she established and maintained the paper's first weekly children's arts and entertainment beat and was a general arts reporter. Now a freelance writer, Lynne works in the areas of non-profit communications, the arts and family entertainment (specializing in children's theater, music, audio books and book illustration). In her spare time, when she's not reading, Lynne is likely to be found strumming American Songbook standards and Tin Pan Alley novelty songs on one of her seven ukuleles.
Look for this product at:
Audiobook Artists
http://www.billyboomtrain.com
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0615209122/parentschoice-20
