Down by the Station

by Will Hillenbrand

When a group of baby animals becomes overly playful, an engineer has quite a challenging time trying to unload them before the morning's first busload of children arrives at the zoo. 35,000 first printing.

Genres: Picture Books, Trains, Childrens, Animals, Transport, Music, Storytime

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Will Hillenbrand is an American children's book author and illustrator who has worked on over seventy books for young people. Raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, he was influenced by the stories he heard in his father's barbershop growing up. After taking a class in picture-book art while in art school, he decided to pursue a career in children's literature, combining his love of storytelling with his love of illustration. He lives in Terrace Park, Ohio with his wife, Jane, and their son, Ian.

Reviews

[Christine Kallner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up at a used bookstore since it remember the song from my own childhood -- it's another fun song/story my son has really enjoyed!

[Genevieve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute little story for children that has a song at the back. Great book for kids.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it to some toddlers. They toddled more than they paid attention to this book, even though it's a fun, charming book. Oh well.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes a children's song and extends it, by having the train go through the zoo, picking up baby animals along the way.
Elements of mystery and danger are added, as well as the pleasure of repetition. My expectations were low going into this; I was very pleasantly surprised.

[Mama Bibliosoph · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think Luke, who is obsessed with trains, has watched a dozen versions of this song on various YouTube Kids channels. So when I saw this book at the library, I snatched it quickly.

Hillenbrand's interpretation is a children's zoo train. The engineer makes stops along the way to the zoo and picks up the baby animals from their parents. As each baby animal boards, the new animal's sound is added to the cumulative "Puff, puff / Toot, toot!" refrain. Luke loves participating in this part the best, and touches his finger to each line as he makes the sounds. For kids with expressive language delays, this is ripe for participation; animal sounds are easier to approximate.

I love how the lyrics use the proper name of each animal's offspring. (i.e., It's not a baby seal, but a pup.) There's also a built-in opportunity to practice responding to, "What happens next?" since there is a clue about the next animal on its preceding page. Finally, kids will enjoy an exciting moment depicted in the illustrations in which two of the baby animals must be rescued from a circle of hungry alligators.


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I review books for children from the perspective of a parent of kids with autism. The review above is part of a longer post on books about singalong books: https://www.lineupthebooks.com/40-sin...

[Twos Bothell]

Our music teacher read this with our twos to help them learn the concepts of play and rest in music and they had a blast taking turns, conducting the class when to play their instruments and when to rest them. Can't wait to get my own copy and read it with them to help them remember what they learned.

[Abigail Mayeske · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good and the animals getting on the train would be a good way to make the story come to life. I did not think the overall story was very engaging but I do think with props and maybe teach the students sound effects to go along with the story, this book would be very engaging to a young audience.

[Elizabeth Braun]

grade level - kindergarten
summary - this book tells children everything they can see down at the train station, including cars, people, engines, and trains,
review - i loved this song growing up, so i love it even more in book form
use in class - this is a good boon to learn the lyrics to the song and then singing the song in music class

[Andrew Oh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for toddlers especially if you sing the tune, though they may not last through all 8 verses. The illustrations were great and can be a story on its own. As they pick up one more baby animal, the song adds another sound/line.

[Avante' Ransom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is cute. Children can learn about the different types of animals, the different types of transportation we have in the world. This book has alot of repition of sounds and rhyming. This would be a perfect book to read to children, because what child doesnt like a good rhyming book.

[Makenzie VanderHorst · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved learning all the different types of animals, vehicles (trains and school bus), role (mom, dad and baby), and places (train station, bridge, school, water fountain, park). It's great to help her learn many objects.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun cumulative version of this favorite song, with the addition of animal sounds to the train sounds I was more familiar with. I had fun reading this to my preschool storytime group and they participated with sounds and gestures.

[W.A. Ashes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this to a class of kindergarteners and they loved it. If you are familiar with the song by the same name then reading this book will be more fun. The flow of the words match the song and it's easy to accidently start singing it.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clever illustrations update this older song.

[Tommy Schlosser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe I don't remember the tune as well as I would have liked, but I didn't feel like some of the additional verses flowed very well with the tune.

[Cassie Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I almost feel as if this children's literature could be a song. The illustrations are cute. The children could also learn about trains!

[Milton Louie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, but pictures were small for reading to a group. B

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This huge, floppy book was not very easy to read with a squirmy baby on my lap. Maybe when she's older.

[Brhea P · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a catchy tune and a great way to involve children while reading. I enjoyed the illustrations, and the song melody throughout the story.

[Magdalena Chavez · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fun and charming book. The story and the illustrations are marvelous.

[Nora Manriquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I can be used for a sequencing activity and there is a song in the back of the book so teachers can look up the song have the children sing along to it.

[Lauren Holmes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute book. This girl goes on a train ride to the zoo. On each stop a different baby animal gets on. This is a good book to use if the class is learning about animals and baby animals.

[Keely DeRiggs · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did like the use of different animals.

[Peyton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good picture book to introduce kids to trains.

[Sequoia Isaac · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is really cute and fun. It encourages singing and also has resources I. The back of the book.

[Alishea Ramsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the adventure the baby animals went on. I like the song at the back of the book as well. I could use this book to teach about animals.

[Grace Fischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book to sing along and mimic what kinds of sounds each animals make. This would be used to teach children different types of animals and how they look like.

[Manisha Pierre · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love any book that involves baby animals. This one expresses a lot of onomatopoeia's which makes it more fun to read aloud.

[Kylee Timmreck · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10⭐️

[Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was ok. Not for younger toddlers to me. It does have nice pictures that catch your attention, like animals and trains. A very fictional book for me.