All Aboard the Number Train!

Number Train is the newest release from Nosy Crow and the amazing duo behind Alphabet Street and Christmas Street, Jonathan Emmett and Ingela P Arrhenius!

Come with us behind the scenes of Jonathan Emmett’s latest book, Number Train, illustrated by Ingela P Arrhenius!

We are excited to share the below extract with you from Jonathan’s own blog about his experience working on this fabulous new book for toddlers!

The idea 

“The idea of Number Train was originally suggested to me in 2017 by author-editor Camilla Reid who was then my editor at Nosy Crow. Alphabet Street, my first novelty book with Nosy Crow and Ingela P Arrhenius, had yet to be published, but initial feedback was enthusiastic, so Camila wrote in an email, “I am starting, cautiously, to think about a follow-up. Number Train? Might that work?” I thought it would work very well and subsequently sent Camilla a rhyming counting book text for a concertina, lift-the-flap format similar to Alphabet Street.”

A few years later…

“After some consideration, Nosy Crow decided we would do another street book – Christmas Street – as the follow-up, However, I felt Number Train had legs (or wheels!) and a few years later, I returned to it to see if I could think of a way to improve it. One of the things that made the two concertina street books I’d done with Nosy Crow so appealing was the big panorama illustrations Ingela created for the reverse sides. I felt Number Train had legs (or wheels!) and a few years later, I returned to it to see if I could think of a way to improve it. One of the things that made the two concertina street books I’d done with Nosy Crow so appealing was the big panorama illustrations Ingela created for the reverse sides.

I decided that the reverse side of Number Train would give readers another look at the locomotive and carriage interiors that were shown beneath the flaps on the front side.

As always, Ingela has done a brilliant job on the book’s illustrations, giving each carriage or wagon a colourful, distinctive design and filling them with amusing and appealing occupants. My favourite is Carriage 8, which contains a band of eight penguins playing musical instruments. You can see how the same carriage looks on the reverse side in the image below, where the penguin pianist remains, but the other instruments are played by other animals.”

The finished product! 

Nosy Crow made the finished book even more appealing by adding wheels to the front and back cover, which turn as it’s pushed along!”

Explore more behind the scenes from Children’s Author, Jonathan Emmett, for Number Train here

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Number Train is available to buy now from Waterstones, Amazon, Bookshop.org, or directly from our website!

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