There’s a Train Out for Dreamland, a Singable Picture Book
Posted on: August 18, 2012
Occasionally, I stumble on a book that instantly becomes one of my very favorites, and this is one of those:
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There’s a Train Out for Dreamland
Music and Lyrics by Frederich H. Heider and Carl Kress
Illustrated by Jane Dyer and Brooke Dyer
ISBN 978-0-06-058022-3
This book is billed as a Christmas book, but there’s nothing strictly Christmas-y about it. This book is for any youngster who goes to bed at night with visions of sugar-plums in their heads. I don’t imagine there are many children who don’t like sugar, so this book is for just about child.
“There’s a Train Out for Dreamland” is beautifully illustrated in water colors by the mother-daughter team of Jane and Brook Dyer. The wintry pictures are of candy color and whimsy and give a vintage feeling, back to a time when childhood was idealized as a time of sweet innocence and imagination.
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Publisher’s webpage for this book:
http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Theres-Train-Out-Dreamland/?isbn=9780060580216?AA=index_authorIntro_27696
This page includes links to short artist biographies.
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Browse the book on the publisher’s webpage, here:
http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780060580216
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YouTube of the song as sung by Ray Dorey, I love this recording.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I4M9GdwaOQ
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The most famous recording is by the wonderful Nat King Cole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj6TeBHjzrY
Besides the most famous recording by Nat King Cole, two others:
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Winter Cafe
Album by Derby Brown
“There’s a Train Out for Dreamland” is Track 5
Preview or purchase, here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/winter-cafe/id272990521
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Auntie Snow’s Lulla-Beddie-Bye (a Dreamscape of Timeless Lullabies)
A medley of “In the Bleak Mid-Winter” and “There’s a Train Out for Dreamland” is on Track 2
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THERE’S A TRAIN OUT FOR DREAMLAND
Music and Lyrics by Frederich H. Heider and Carl Kress
Ding, dong, ding, dong,
Hear a bell a-ringing.
All the children singing.
You’ll be singing too.
Whoo-oo, whoo-oo,
Hear a whistle blowing.
Soon they’ll all be going.
You’ll be going too.
There’s a train out for Dreamland
That rides on a peppermint rail.
It only stops at ice-cream stations
To pick up crackerjack mail.
There’s a train out for Dreamland.
It’s run by a chocolate brown bear.
It puffs around a candy mountain
As it sails through the air.
You’ll see a big white snowman
Who melts when he hears your laugh.
A singing mouse, a licorice house,
And a funny-looking jelly bean giraffe.
All aboard now for Dreamland,
We’ll choo-choo, choo-choo to the skies.
So, if you want to go to Dreamland,
Well, then you just close your eyes.
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Related Posts
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GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK
Singable Picture Books of the Great American Songbook and Michael Feinstein’s Foundation for the Preservation of the Great American Songbook
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2011/09/10/american-songbook-singable-picture-books-and-michael-feinsteins-foundation-for-the-preservation-of-the-great-american-songbook/
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CHRISTMAS
A Collection of Singable Picture Books that celebrate CHRISTMAS!
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/singable-picture-books-for-christmas/
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WINTER
Singable Picture Books for Winter
Some of these are sung at Christmastime, but this is a list of songs about Winter that you can sing all season long!
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/singable-picture-books-for-winter/
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LULLABIES
