Customer Reviews

Loco Dog and the Dust Devil in the Railyard

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

 

 

I love this book! It's such a sweet story about a loyal dog, a talented young artist and the hopes and dreams of us all. What a treasure!

Once upon a time, a large black dog named Loco [short for "Locomotive"] lived in the Santa Fe rail yard. The yard was gritty with high desert sands and often dust devils swirled through. One spring evening a particularly strong devil arrived. It changed the lives of Loco, the local kids and everyone around him in magical ways.

Love and faith prevail after all.

Marcy Heller has written an inspiring and charming story for kids from five and older. The book is beautifully illustrated by Nancy Poes, who brings the old Rail Yard alive. She writes on her website:

"I have painted on the beaches of Hawai'i, the Atlantic cliffs of Portugal, in river canyons of the Montana Rockies and on the boardwalk along the New Jersey shore. I have looked at and described, in paint, colorful scenes in Manhattan, marshlands on Cape Cod and nineteenth-century Viennese apartment buildings. I have created still lifes made up of hibiscus, Chinese pots, violins, Portuguese pastries, hula dolls and Indonesian baskets. And I follow the quiet and constant impulse to paint the internal scenery of my life. I put something back into the world that is positive and vital and which records something of life's beauty and truth.

"Painting is bounded by material and time but is also generated in perfect freedom. It is the best kind of journey -- one of discovery. The images I choose are mine. It is a marvelous feeling to see an image coalesce in my mind's eye, gathering interest and intensity from many indefinable and curious sources somewhere within me. These sources are intensely human. They are things that connect all of us together."

This book is a wonderful story and a wonderful reminder of what the Rail Yard looked like before it became gentrified.

Robert C. Ross 2009

I was really pleased with this purchase. Not only is the story a good one but the art work and colors are outstanding!