Donald Crews’ love for trains is so real. Big, fast, cool different cars, special sounds, colors. I bet he had some cool train toys too 🚂 This book is a THRILLER
I love the way Crews uses the 'We' and the typeface not just to show the collective decision, but as part of the design too. The first spread where they are making the decision, the lines of text move left and right as he changes the indent, almost as you would look left and right and all around before choosing your path and setting out. Then for the rest of the story each line is slightly indented and he uses the w in 'We' at the beginning of many lines with the increasing indent to emphasize moving forward, except in the moment of indecision - "We should have taken the road" where it is positioned without an indent, and in the very last line, where the position and slope of the A in "And we never took the short-cut again" completely contrasts the direction of the preceding indented lines, all starting with W. Very cool to see the typography incorporated into the design of the graphic spreads in this way.
I absolutely LOVED hearing you guys read and discuss this book at Picture Book Summit (especially when Mac said to Jon, “… It’s a TRAIN!” in response to Jon’s owl-influenced “WOO-WOOs.”) I’m curious though - do you think this book would get published today? I notice that a lot of the books you share are from your own childhoods, which is lovely… yet I am also keenly aware of how industry standards have changed in recent years and often find myself wondering “could this be published today?” I’d love to know your thoughts on that… and whether your focus on these older classics has anything to do with that?
I was wondering if Shortcut was too scary for my toddler, but then I remembered he loves The Skull, which itself has a thrilling sequence with a repetitive threat
Okay, now I find there’s such a thing called Looking at Picture Books. Why didn’t you guys do this earlier?! I have been thinking there’s something about picture books besides text and pictures that makes a great story. But I can’t pinpoint it until I read your conversation today. The negative space Jon talked about and how all the hard work lead to this moment Mac mentioned. I said 哎呀呀 three times in a row when I hit these words. I won’t tell you what 哎呀呀 means. But please keep doing this, I LOVE these old pictures books!
I loved this whole discussion so much. There is just one spot where, upon reflection, I may differ ever so slightly, and it's on the "But these kids weren’t shirkers. This isn’t Pinocchio. They took the shortcut because, 'It was late, and it was getting dark.'" note. Because I think this was definitely not the first time they had taken the train tracks--because how else would they know it was specifically a shortcut? Perhaps they had heard it called that by careless third parties...but....I dunno. Those would have presumably been the same people who told them NOT to take it, and that would have been a very poor choice of words to support a "don't go on the train tracks" argument. Anyhow, I prefer that reading of the events (that they WERE shirkers who regularly took a dangerous shortcut 😂) for myself because it explains their chutzpah in doing it at dusk (and their initial relaxed attitude in the art), and it makes them even more likable/relatable. So I think of "again" in "And we didn't take the shortcut again." as possibly meaning the end of a series of more naive (but no less death-defying--just luckier) trips on those tracks. Either way, what a wonderful discussion! Thank you so much for sharing it; I definitely noticed so much more this read-through!!
Generally one hyphenates a word to create a compound modifier if it comes before the noun it modifies. The Shortcut at the start is the noun for the idea of the way through in a pinch. The Short-cut at the close of the book is perhaps describing their fear about their near death experience.
I SO enjoyed the book through your discussion ( I bought it and read it beforehand).
I felt the need to listen to 1990s American trains on youtube to know if I’d been making the right ‘Whoo whoos’ as I read it out loud, ( British trains sounded different I think!)
I never knew about this book- so glad to learn about it! The multiple page sequences with no text made me think of David Wiesner's books which we fell in LOVE with when a bookstore employee recommended them to me for my toddler son (who is now in college). We cherished reading them together many times across his childhood. I hope you'll consider doing a post on Flotsam, Free Fall, or Sector 7, our absolute favorites- all do so much with illustration & little/no text.
First of all, I am so excited about a place to unabashedly nerd out over picture books. I love everything about this Substack. My 4 kids are older now (youngest is 13), but we discovered Shortcut at a library in WV many years ago. It became my kids’ favorite read aloud so we bought our own used copy. Mac and Jon have brought forward so many brilliant aspects of this book. Definitely a masterpiece.
Please keep doing these forever
Hy guys!
do you know that the FUTURA font (which is German) is the one used by many railway companies for their signs and communication? I think Donald knew...
I ran to the library to get this book, and I immediately read it with my 6 year old. Just a couple of pages in, she whispers, "Oh no..." Just perfect.
I may be reaching, but maybe “short-cut” is being used here to indicate that their lives could have been “cut short”?
Donald Crews’ love for trains is so real. Big, fast, cool different cars, special sounds, colors. I bet he had some cool train toys too 🚂 This book is a THRILLER
I love the way Crews uses the 'We' and the typeface not just to show the collective decision, but as part of the design too. The first spread where they are making the decision, the lines of text move left and right as he changes the indent, almost as you would look left and right and all around before choosing your path and setting out. Then for the rest of the story each line is slightly indented and he uses the w in 'We' at the beginning of many lines with the increasing indent to emphasize moving forward, except in the moment of indecision - "We should have taken the road" where it is positioned without an indent, and in the very last line, where the position and slope of the A in "And we never took the short-cut again" completely contrasts the direction of the preceding indented lines, all starting with W. Very cool to see the typography incorporated into the design of the graphic spreads in this way.
I absolutely LOVED hearing you guys read and discuss this book at Picture Book Summit (especially when Mac said to Jon, “… It’s a TRAIN!” in response to Jon’s owl-influenced “WOO-WOOs.”) I’m curious though - do you think this book would get published today? I notice that a lot of the books you share are from your own childhoods, which is lovely… yet I am also keenly aware of how industry standards have changed in recent years and often find myself wondering “could this be published today?” I’d love to know your thoughts on that… and whether your focus on these older classics has anything to do with that?
I was wondering if Shortcut was too scary for my toddler, but then I remembered he loves The Skull, which itself has a thrilling sequence with a repetitive threat
I just wanted to share my favorite Halloween book: Hester by Byron Barton. A little witch in a big city.
Okay, now I find there’s such a thing called Looking at Picture Books. Why didn’t you guys do this earlier?! I have been thinking there’s something about picture books besides text and pictures that makes a great story. But I can’t pinpoint it until I read your conversation today. The negative space Jon talked about and how all the hard work lead to this moment Mac mentioned. I said 哎呀呀 three times in a row when I hit these words. I won’t tell you what 哎呀呀 means. But please keep doing this, I LOVE these old pictures books!
I loved this whole discussion so much. There is just one spot where, upon reflection, I may differ ever so slightly, and it's on the "But these kids weren’t shirkers. This isn’t Pinocchio. They took the shortcut because, 'It was late, and it was getting dark.'" note. Because I think this was definitely not the first time they had taken the train tracks--because how else would they know it was specifically a shortcut? Perhaps they had heard it called that by careless third parties...but....I dunno. Those would have presumably been the same people who told them NOT to take it, and that would have been a very poor choice of words to support a "don't go on the train tracks" argument. Anyhow, I prefer that reading of the events (that they WERE shirkers who regularly took a dangerous shortcut 😂) for myself because it explains their chutzpah in doing it at dusk (and their initial relaxed attitude in the art), and it makes them even more likable/relatable. So I think of "again" in "And we didn't take the shortcut again." as possibly meaning the end of a series of more naive (but no less death-defying--just luckier) trips on those tracks. Either way, what a wonderful discussion! Thank you so much for sharing it; I definitely noticed so much more this read-through!!
Generally one hyphenates a word to create a compound modifier if it comes before the noun it modifies. The Shortcut at the start is the noun for the idea of the way through in a pinch. The Short-cut at the close of the book is perhaps describing their fear about their near death experience.
Love getting recommendations from y’all! Definitely adding to our list. You had me at scary. as. hell.
I SO enjoyed the book through your discussion ( I bought it and read it beforehand).
I felt the need to listen to 1990s American trains on youtube to know if I’d been making the right ‘Whoo whoos’ as I read it out loud, ( British trains sounded different I think!)
A really wonderful book.
I never knew about this book- so glad to learn about it! The multiple page sequences with no text made me think of David Wiesner's books which we fell in LOVE with when a bookstore employee recommended them to me for my toddler son (who is now in college). We cherished reading them together many times across his childhood. I hope you'll consider doing a post on Flotsam, Free Fall, or Sector 7, our absolute favorites- all do so much with illustration & little/no text.
First of all, I am so excited about a place to unabashedly nerd out over picture books. I love everything about this Substack. My 4 kids are older now (youngest is 13), but we discovered Shortcut at a library in WV many years ago. It became my kids’ favorite read aloud so we bought our own used copy. Mac and Jon have brought forward so many brilliant aspects of this book. Definitely a masterpiece.