Customer Reviews

The Banshee Train

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The story still gives me chills after reading it a few times. After I explained to him what it was about, my 6 year old asked me to read it to him anyway, and he was so scared he couldn't go to sleep afterward. It is well written, with quality artwork, but I would recommend it for older kids who enjoy ghost stories, rather than young pre-readers. Even with a happy ending, the Banshee legend is a scary, creepy image. A full passenger train being chased to certain death by a reckless runaway passenger train behind it is terrifying beyond words, even if (or especially if) the pursuer turns out to be a spector.

I remember reading this when I was young, and have regularly rediscovered it. It's a great story, well written and beautifully illustrated.

My daughter says that this book "absolutely creeped me out" when she was young. Which is saying something, because she read a lot of scary books as a child. And it still makes my scalp crawl just thinking about it sometimes.

The late Ted Rose was one of the country's great railroad artists. I originally bought this book for the illustrations, and I was not disappointed. The story itself is good, even though Odds Bodkin's narrative style seems somewhat pedestrian when written down. But Ted Rose's illustrations are superb, even if he had some trouble rendering people.

P.S.: I think the red-bearded fireman in the pictures is supposed to be Bodkin himself.