The Cable Car and the Dragon [Paperback]

Herb Caen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1995 | Grade Level: P and up

This is the rollicking tale of the adventures of Charlie, the youngest cable car. Only sixty years old, he is tired of the same old rut. One night as he's puffing himself up Nob Hill, he hears a lot of excitement down below: Chinese New year! Suddenly, Charlie takes a right turn at Jackson Street, rather than the left he has taken for sixty years, and he finds himself in the middle of the parade. There he meets a friendly dragon named Chu Chin Chow, who is bored with his job. Charlie treats Chu to a cable car ride that looks as if it will end in a disastrous plunge into the San Francisco Bay--unless a miracle occurs.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This intricately illustrated exploration of "The City by the Bay" is engagingly told by venerable SF columnist Caen. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

--SMALL PRESS BOOK REVIEW
The Cable Car and the Dragon is a well-told children's story which takes place in San Francisco. Appropriate to the setting, the story is about a famous cable car and a Chinese dragon. It is delightful and fast-paced, taking its young readers (ages 6-10) frolicking through the streets of San Francisco to the bay at the edge of the city.

After sixty years of puffing up the same hills and clinging to the same track, Charlie, the youngest cable car in the city, deviates from his assigned route, turning right into Chinatown instead of the usual left at the end of Nob Hill. Charlie lumbers into the midst of a Chinese New Year parade and befriends its main attraction, a Chinese dragon named Chu Chin Chow who is equally dissatisfied with his lot, which is marching in the parade every year. Chow shows Charlie all of the attractions of the parade, and in retum Charlie takes Chow on a thrilling and almost disastrous ride through the hills and streets of San Francisco.

The experiences of these two are told in such a way that the reader learns much about the famous city of San Francisco, including not only Chinatown and the hills and streets, but even the weather: "When the city is all covered with fog, it's like living inside a great gray pearl."

Author Herb Caen is the well-known columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. He has published other, adult books on San Francisco. This is his first children's book. Barbara Byfield, the illustrator, has illustrated and written books for children.

--THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, August 10, 1986
A reissue of the 1972 book by the popular columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle, this is the story of Charlie, the youngest cable car in the city, who encounters Chinese New Year's and joins the parade.

--USAIR MAGAZINE
A cable car named Charlie and a Chinese dragon named Chu Chin Chow explore each other's very different worlds together--the hills of San Francisco and Chinatowns's New Year's celebration.

This is delightful and fast-paced, taking its young readers frolicking through the streets of San Francisco to the bay at the edge of the city. Small Press Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 40 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (March 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811810542
• ISBN-13: 978-0811810548
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #342,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun for children and adults...., April 5, 2000

By 

ADP (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cable Car and the Dragon (Hardcover)

You don't have to be from San Fran to love this little story, although I am sure that it helps. The plot follows Charlie the cable car as he and a favorite passenger (the narrator, who is Caen himself, of course) leave the cable car routes and decide to explore their hometown of San Francisco, coming into contact with Chu, a Chinese New Year's dragon. Caen's legendary wit is surprisingly well-suited to this kind of writing; I loved his personification of the young cable car (he compares Charlie's voice to "a piece of wood being rubbed across steel"). Byfield's watercolors help tell the story (making the book a good mixture of visuals and text) but are also pleasures in and of themselves.

The story does not have a very specific and blunt point for children to take away (which is fine with me). That said, it does imply that thinking out of the box (or off the trolley routes) is good and that making friends with people from other cultures is beneficial. Kind of appropriate for San Francisco when you think about it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Old fashioned, August 11, 2010

By 

Jenster - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Cable Car and the Dragon (Paperback)

The style of this book is like an old fashioned paperback from when I was a kid. The illustrations are thoughtful, and there is a lot of prose, so better for an older child. The story is interesting, but wish it was a little more engaging, a bit wordy at times. I did find it interesting that Herb Caen was the author.