Customer Reviews

The Cable Car and the Dragon

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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.

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.