Do you know when the song "The Train They Call the City of New Orleans" first came out? I thought I had a general idea, but I was wrong, really, really wrong! (It is much newer than I thought). I remember the John Denver version the best, but others sang it as well, including Arlo Guthrie. It is beautifully rendered in The Train They Call the City of New Orleans, by Steve Goodman and illustrated by Michael McCurdy.

I was looking for more books illustrating songs, but Home on the Range: John A. Lomax and His Cowboy Songs, by Deborah Hopkinson and illustrated by S.D. Schindler was so much more! Told at first that no one would be interested in these songs of the common people, Lomax fortunately did not give up and went on to collect the songs sung on the prairie, around camp fires on cattle drives and so forth. We are lucky he did!

I loved the illustrations by Renee Graef, in Rodgers and Hammerstein's My Favorite Things, they were soft and gentle and beautifully detailed. Of course, now I'll be humming this song for the rest of the day! (Could be worse, at least this is not one of those annoying songs). ;-)

I knew there were lots of verses to the song "My Country 'Tis of Thee", but, I did not know there were so many. (Or, that the tune has been used for national anthems in dozens of countries). My Country, 'Tis of Thee: How One Song Reveals the History of Civil Rights, by Claire Rudolf Murphy and illustrated by Bryan Collier tracks just how this tune was used ... from independence from England, to freeing the slaves, votes for women, and equal rights ... a most interesting book.

Reading Hermit With Dog