Subway

by Christoph Niemann

Speed. Color. Sound. Numbers. Maps. Connections. Navigation. Subway systems may be specific to certain cities around the world, but the pure thrill of a subway ride is universal to all young children. Christoph Niemann’s graphically elegant and playful picture book is a tour de force for preschoolers and a stellar addition to the canon of books about trains, trucks, planes, and automobiles. Based on the author’s own underground adventures with his young boys—chronicled for adult readers in Niemann’s New York Times blog, Abstract City—this innovative picture book is an invitation down underground, where a system of trains and tracks delivers millions of riders to their destinations each day. “Underneath the city is this beautifully simple system of letters, numbers, and colors. The trains and stations are huge and impressive but also comforting, because nothing ever changes. My boys are in charge; they can read the signs, navigate the grid, and they always know what happens next.”—Christoph Niemann

Genres: Picture Books, Transport, Childrens, New York, Fiction, Art, Storytime

40 pages, Hardcover

First published May 25, 2010

Reviews

[Jana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore this book! I found it in New York City, on Halloween. I was nerdily delighted to read this page:

Next up is our favorite train, the F.
We meet a tourist, a banker, a chef.
Witches and cowboys can sometimes be seen
(perhaps not today, but on Halloween).

The art is abstract, bright, and beautiful. The story is a heartwarming, simple tale of a dad and his two boys having an adventure on a rainy day. It is going to live at Nana's house in my "grandson library"; they just happen to be 2 little boys (ages 1 & 3). It's meant to be!

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the artwork and enthusiasm evident in this book. It's a really fun exploration of the subway, even for non-NYCers. The colors stand out well against the black background, and the letters and numbers are fun to practice. This was enjoyed by kids & adults alike.

[Serhiy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wouldn't count on this book for directions, as it is a little out of date, but its subway rhymes are a whole lot of fun and definitely guarantee a pleasant bed time.

[Nicolettenat]

I listened to Emma Straub read this on Books Are Magic's Instagram the other day and I found this story to be so heartwarming. Look at how tender this personification is: "At Bergen the F is sad to see it has to separate from it's friend, the G." I adored it. I can't wait to gift this book to a kid.

Update: it has, indeed, given me great joy to have given this book to a baby.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a New York librarian I'm really thrilled to see something so specific that helps explain a concept kids are just starting to explore. And while this is NYC-specific, this book also works with concepts (especially numbers and colors) as well as transportation.

[Kasey McSwain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rats with metro cards would sure make taking the train better!

[Tori Bate · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest I just did not like this book. The story is all about a dad taking his two children on a subway ride because the day was rainy and gloomy. While the story concept is simple, the book was too complicated to understand the idea of a subway. It wasn’t quite an A-Z book about the subway but it wasn’t quite an informational text for a child either. I do believe that if you had a young child that loved trains and all the places they can go it would be a great story and would be attached to every page. Yet, it just wasn’t for me.

The book itself is beautiful to look at. With the combination of the dark black background and the contrasting reds blues greens and purples the book is compelling to look at. The words are large but the pictures at times can be confusing especially for a child who has never ridden on a subway before. While the book might capture the joy and fun of a subway ride for a child it goes about it strange, listing the stations and which trains can take them place to place. I feel that the book would have been much more impactful with a simplistic design and simpler explanations. Overall, if your child loves trains and the subway this would be a good read but if you want to introduce your child to a subway I would steer clear of this book.

[Michael Huscusson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book shows a tale of a dad and his two sons, who decide to go on a subway. The three of them travel from place to place, going on various subways, while seeing many different things on the way. They even see some witches and cowboys, but mostly just on Halloween. This book shows the excitement that this family receives from something as simple as traveling on subway, which many people do every day. The illustrations use paint to show different colors but keeps the background black to make them stand out and to represent the subway being underground. This book conveys the message for students that you can find excitement even in the simple things.
Classroom Use: This book could be great for students to help show them the enjoyment in even the simplest things. While a subway seems so boring and normal, this family got lots of excitement from riding around on the subway.
Critique: This story gets confusing throughout the different routes that the family went on and for a younger reader, this book might cause lots of confusion.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son and I enjoyed this book (over and over again). Even the covers were fun and we enjoyed pointing to which subways go to mommy's work, which go to daddy's work, which go to grandma and grandpa, etc.

[Lillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jay read this to us for our library's story time. This is such a fun book if you live in NYC. There are even in-jokes about specific subway lines. Fun for the parents too. Nice illustrations. We might want to buy this one.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A father and two children spend a rainy day exploring the NYC subway system. The bright graffiti-style illustration pulls in the readers.

Tags: Subways -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fathers and sons -- Stories in rhyme -- Picture books --

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was pretty confusing to my class. SOME of them understood more when I explained that the subway is like the metro (we are in MD, close to DC).

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rhyming story of a father and two children who entertain themselves on a cold wet day on the NYC subways.

NYC is never mentioned, but it's clear from the train names and stops.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for babies

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Minus a full star for needlessly gendering trains.

[Lili Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for all the subway lovers out there (I think for kids, that's pretty much everyone?).

[Juliet McGee · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 stars. Yes, like 3. Bunnies.

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think he really captured the experience of loving the the NYC subway system. Simple but great playful illustrations.

[Olivia Matlock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked reading this book. I liked the pictures the most about it and loved all of the different colors and shapes it had throughout it!

[Pia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations, such a fan of his work. The last page is weirdly terrifying...

[Judy Desetti · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think this book is fairly confusing to younger children. I think you need to understand and have some background knowledge of public transportation and the subway system to understand the confusing stark images.

I do think this would be great book to use with an art class to show how subtle changes makes the feel of the drawing feeling different. It could also be used in teaching perspective.

Here is a SLJ review
School Library Journal (June 1, 2010)

PreS-Gr 1-This colorful, vivacious, child-centered title began with a post on Niemann's blog, Abstract City, in which he describes a day of riding the subway with his two sons just for fun. The artist uses thick gouache paint to render his characters as standard pictograms, akin to those on city signs, with curved edges for hands and feet, and the technique creates a chalky texture that looks like correction fluid. Visual communication lords over the text. Niemann uses many tropes for expression: the youngsters, excited to spend the rainy day on the subway, hi-five. The agony of the adventure coming to an end is punctuated with tears bursting from one son and father dragging the other one, boneless. The spreads of the dedication page, the A train and all its 44 stops, and the wild crisscrossing array of colored lines under Times Square mirroring the famed city lights on the surface, capture the glory of this venerable transportation system. The rhyming text and references to subway lore add chuckles for older readers, but the meter does create an occasional stumble. A sure hit with most youngsters, especially those who are transfixed by trains.-Sara Lissa Paulson, American Sign Language and English Lower School PS 347, New York City Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.

[Gerardo Mendoza-Tovar · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is about a man and his two children who decide to go on the subway for fun. They go from one subway to another enjoying the little things each one has. Some of the things they see on the bus are witches and cowboys, but they usually only see them on Halloween!
This book wasn't one of my favorite books that I have read, but it was pretty good. I didn't really like the story line and it was very engaging. The best part of the book were the illustrations. Since the subways were mainly underground, the background was black so the other objects popped out! In my classroom, I would use this book as a tool to show the students that you can find little great gifts in the simplest things. The family was just on subways and traveling and they found a lot of small gifts on their adventure. So hopefully the students would be on the lookout to find the greatness in everything. The grade level for the book is preschool to 3rd grade. I believe the book would be good for students in those grades because the vocabulary level was very low. The book was 40 pages, but the majority of each page were illustrations. So the children shouldn't have a problem reading this book. I wouldn't really recommend this book to children, but I might just because of the illustrations.

Niemann, Christoph. (2010). Subway. New York, NY: HarperCollins Children’s Books.

[Tasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take a trip through the tunnels with two children and a father on a rainy day. Wait for the train to come, feel the breeze and the rumble. Take the A train to all 44 stations. Then the F train filled with interesting people. You can take the 1 or 2 trains depending on whether you need the express. 7 heads to Times Square and you get a wonderful view on Q. F and G run together, then apart, and then return together again. When the day is done, you will still want to be riding the rails underground.

Told in happy rhyme, this book plays with rhythm and internal rhyme. It has the pace of trains, pauses at stations, rushes forward at times. The illustrations are done in thick lines with bright colors on black backgrounds. They evoke a feeling of looking at signs rather than illustrations. At the same time, they have a jaunty sense of humor that works really well.

I’d grab this one in a New York minute to use in a transportation unit or storytime. Children from New York will immediately recognize the places, while folks from around the country will enjoy this uniquely NY title. Appropriate for ages 3-5.

[Mama Bibliosoph · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's raining, so a father and two kids go on a New York City subway adventure. The opening pages thrill with the wind and rumble of an approaching train in the tunnel as seen from a platform edge. Then the family boards their first train (the A) and readers are treated to a romp through the city's iconic underground.

The use of the official MTA letter and number symbols for all the train lines, and the vibrant, high-contrast illustrations are bee-to-honey-level fabulousness. Niemann did a wonderful job in his drawings of suggesting action and the sensory feel of the subway--right down to the scurrying of rats on the tracks at a J-train stop.

The text rhymes passably, but the rhythm is sometimes awkward. For a subway-loving kid, none of these quibbles matter because you are likely to have a lot of starts and stops as your child takes time exploring each page. A must-have for New Yorkers.

****
I review books for children from the perspective of a parent of kids with autism. The review above is from a longer blog post about great books for kids who really love trains: http://www.lineupthebooks.com/obsesse...

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is about the adventures two children and their dad take on their trip on the subway. It gives the reader a detailed summary of their journey, telling about the different station, routes and the different people they meet. The reader gets to experience how thrilling a subway trip can be for two children. The story is also vividly illustrated, the illustrations are drawn on an all-black background and the rest of the drawings are drawn with only primary colors. This gives the illustrations a simplistic yet meticulous feeling. The characters, the two sons and the dad, don’t have faces, so their emotions are all portrayed by their body actions. This beautiful story portrays father-son relationships in a positive manner. It also teaches children about journey and discovering new places. This book can be used in class before going on a fieldtrip or before similar situations. Or this story can be a great bedtime story.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are an early childhood educator in New York City, this book will be a hit in your classroom. The story is about a family spending the day on the subway, doing what commuters do -- waiting at the platform, climbing stairs, transferring, going uptown and downtown -- all the things that adults take for granted, but children are still excited to do.

There are bright, simple illustrations, rhymes, and the very recognizable train letters and numbers that kids in NYC know so well. Since trains are a daily part of most New York children's lives, it would be easy to start a conversation about how one travels to school, for example. Having such visible numbers and letters can also encourage early literacy skills – pointing them out or even drawing their own trains with their respective names.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

"NOT just for New Yorkers, this swingy rhyming book follows a daddy and his two little kids on a subway adventure on a rainy day. They take the A train from jazzy Harlem all the way to sleepy Far Rockaway. They savor the view as the Q crosses over the East River. They have fun with the map - why take the 1 straight from the southern tip of Manhattan to the southern end of Central Park... when you could take the 3 to the 5 to the N to the B to the C to the 7 to the 6 to the E to the D and end up at the same point?"

Full review on Pink Me: http://pinkme.typepad.com/pink-me/201...

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

My son really liked this one and had me read it twice in a row the first time (3 times if he'd gotten his way)! We kept having to flip back to the first page where the whole subway system map was. It was a little confusing trying to place where each line was on the overall map and I wish there was a more formal map on the endpages to refer to. It also was set in verse, but very variable, sometimes to the point I wasn't sure if it all was supposed to be verse or not. Just made it a little harder/more tedious to read. The paintings are really vibrant and attractive to little ones, so like I said a favorite in our house.

[Rita Crayon Huang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant and specific, with route details and an extremely pleasing, bold, traffic-appropriate art style. All my New York-based and -bred friends with kids are getting copies in the near future.

I will probably pair this with Knuffle Bunny, by Mo Willems, which isn't a book I've given out in the past. Great story in that, obviously, and I once heard Mo Willems describe his cleaning up of the photo backgrounds in that book as his love song to New York. (He may not have used those words exactly--but that was the gist.) Subway makes me want to put these books together.

[Cory Schulz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a family travels from one location in New York City to another location in that city. This book’s illustrations use the blank people from the bathroom signs you see in most public areas. This book was all about rhyming and integrating names and numbers into locations. This was a fun book to read, and the only reason I did not choose this one as my favorite, is I felt the need to choose a book with a more meaningful moral. I really love the art for art's sake but I do not think it is right for a children's book. This would be a fun book for a math class because of all the numbers and streets they mention.