Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: Trains

  • Imaginary Trains

    Imaginary Trains

    Michael Whalen is a force within the world of music; a two-time Emmy® award winning composer and international recording artist his long awaited album Imaginary Trains has finally arrived and is a work that has been well worth the wait.

    As a composer he delights in creating the original; since his last personal work Sacred Spaces in 2019, he has been experimenting with a range of sounds of which he has selected 200 unique variations, to come together in a magical eleven track work.

    So hop on board with Imaginary Trains and settle in for a wondrous journey only you can take as it leaves the station for places yet to be discovered. As electronic music is nothing is as it seems, always containing something completely unexpected, often coming across as clinical, this work is anything but as it is full of life, warmth and pizazz; just like any good long haul train journey should be. Enjoy.

    Across the world to be with you has been arranged by Ricky Kej and features some delicate flute work from Ravichandra Kulur woven throughout the slightly otherworldly piece that transports into that magical, timeless space discovered on may long train journeys, where time simply seems to stand still.

    A truly beautiful piece is My Immortal Beloved which simply drifts, floating and dreaming whereas a little further into the journey, the presence of humanity steps into the mix, in Vox Humana with pulsing beats, along with chattering vocals added for a bit of fun, before slowly being left behind as the train moves ever onwards.

    Spacey pulsating and robust The Journey to LightsEdge changes the tempo again to an intricate sweeping soundscape that has the steady tempo of wheels turning on the track, rushing onward the destination drawing ever closer.

    Regardless of where you begin on this fascinating journey into worlds apart, the music is utterly captivating. As Whalen says, when he was composing the work he had to take the journey before he could create the sounds to capture the essence of the already formed track titles.

     Join him on his Imaginary Trains and arrive at the final destination with the enchanting piece Distance featuring the gentle vocals of Donna Lewis; the perfect conclusion to an album that is enchanting, dreamy, romantic and fun, but most importantly, a brilliant piece of work from a man who delights in creating something vastly different within the electronic spectrum.

  • Machines in Motion: The Amazing History of Transportation

    Machines in Motion: The Amazing History of Transportation

    Machines in Motion presents immense detail in the illustrations and text used throughout this non-fiction book, detailing much of the History of Transportation from the team of Tom Jackson and Chris Mould.

    Tom Jackson is a science writer for both children and adults of more than 20 years. Chris Mould an illustrator, is known for his quirky black and white line illustrations which are used extensively throughout. Colour is introduced with the page boarders and occasional passages of text.

    From earliest times technology has been used to create and invent what even then, 7,000 years ago were considered as new inventions: of course, they were, just like now, or alternatively, is now simply just a refined version of what was invented then?

    This and many more questions will be answered over the pages, as each of the sections sets out in a rather intriguing style facts, figures and timelines; all illustrated with intricately detailed illustrations, designed to intrigue even the most hardened of non-scientific children into wanting to turn the next page to see what is on the other side.

    Trains set out the style of the book with a wonderful kaleidoscope of drawings and text to intrigue and encourage readers of whatever age and reading level to investigate further. Underground comes next, beginning at 600BC moving through to the creation of the Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) joining France and Britain via train, which was commenced in 1988 and completed in 1994.

    1852 saw the Dirigible take to the skies, with the Supersonic Skydiver taking pride of place in the skies in 2012. Working Vehicles announces the first fire engine, the Newsham fire engine, which was built in 1721.

    Ending this journey of fascinating scientific facts is Spacecraft which only presents until 2000 when the International Space Station was launched into space, weighing an impressive 450 tons, giving Astronauts their first permanent home in space.

    It is fair to say some of the facts are not correct, which is a bit of an issue, as scientific books, regardless of the age range need to be correct. Fact checking is absolutely important particularly for young readers. 1944 D-Day is one such instance, as these DD water craft were a type of tank that was propelled thought the water with propellers, not sails!

    Notwithstanding the above comment, overall Machines In Motion is a comprehensive history of mechanical movement in one form or another over hundreds of years, which will intrigue and delight the hearts of children with or without a scientific interest.

  • Visiting You: A Journey of Love

    Visiting You: A Journey of Love

    This is a story about a journey. It is about the journeys we take to see the people we love. It shows many people visiting loved ones young and old, and how these journeys are pathways which we all must walk. This tale begins with a young girl and her mother boarding a train. Each day the young girl meets someone and asks who they are visiting.

    On the train, she spoke to a grumpy looking man, who told her about spending the day with his daughter and how much fun they had. When they caught the bus, the girl asked an elderly man who he was visiting.  He told her about his wife, who didn’t remember him anymore. Another young girl sat next to the mother and child on the tram. This young person was going to visit her Aja, or grandpa, who had also lost his memory. Another woman was visiting her son in hospital.

    The girl identified the love these people felt. She compares it to the love she feels when she visits her person, (presumably her father), and she is joyous to be seeing him again. This is a very interesting way to deal with a child who has experienced a loved one in hospital. Looking at other people’s journeys and situations must help with the reality of her situation.

    The book has delicate paint wash illustrations that suit the tone of the story well. There is a gentleness and positivity about the story, and the colours reflect this. The only clue we have is “ Mama looks worried and tired….I tell her that you’ll be alright.” The end pages at the front show mother and daughter standing uncertainly before they move on, and the end pages at the back show the daughter happily leading her mother towards someone they both love. No matter what the outcome of father’s condition, the reader feels that the positive thoughts and the love that surrounds the girl will help her to cope.

     

  • Marge and the Great Train Rescue

    Marge and the Great Train Rescue

    Marge is once again on duty and in charge of Jakey and Jemina in her latest series of adventures, which could only happen with Marge as your babysitter and an entire world in which to have adventures. This time though she is somehow involved with a train rescue, yep, that’s right, a train rescue, when a train sort, of somehow, gets confused and has to stop on the track to make way for a cow.

    Marge and the children are given tickets to take the train on an outing to the Zoo. Marge makes a promise to Jakey, who is mad about trains, that he can certainly drive the train. Things go wrong almost immediately when they try to enter the driver’s cabin. The conductor gets very cross indeed and so they try a disguise, which somehow is not too good. It looks like Marge cannot make good on her promise that is until the train has to stop for cow on the track, and once again Marge, with her amazing magic, comes to the rescue.

    But that was after the terrible tale of the missing tooth and before they reached the Zoo, which was when things really got to be funny and zany and so much fun!

    Isla Fisher with her zany sense of the ridiculous and Eglantine Ceulemans, with her wonderfully cartoon-like portraits of Marge and the children,  a have once again bought her flamboyantly to life in another series of outlandish adventures which are perfectly designed to appeal ,not just to children, but to the child in us all.

    Well scripted for early readers and young readers discovering their first serious chapter book, there will be smiles all around as the children in your life relate to Marge in charge once again, with chaos all around, wild adventure and a good dose of hilarity ruling the day.