The Train

In The Train a girl listens as her uncle tells her about his experience at residential school. Lesley's images throughout the text have bright, cheery backgrounds, save the tenth opening, which shows the uncle getting his hair cut. I was expecting the colors to shift when he began talking about his experience because that's how many other picturebooks deal with this change in mood, time, and location.

For example, in When We Were Alone, a story where a grandmother is talking about her experience at residential school with her granddaughter, the first opening shows the little girl helping her kókom (grandmother) in the garden. They are both wearing bright clothes, the sky is blue, everything is cheerful. The second opening, however, has a cloudy-grey background. This children are dressed "like storm clouds" and the feeling is rather dreary.

In Stolen Words, a story where a grandfather is talking about his experience at residential school with his granddaughter, the sixth opening shows them both in full colour, with a safe blue sky behind them, while the fifth opening is nearly greyscale and lends a foreboding atmosphere to the story.

The Train, however, maintains the safety of bright backgrounds the majority of the time the uncle is relating his experience. Although Lesley offers cues that the story is distressing with detail facial expressions (fifth opening), what might potentially be the most disturbing illustration in the book (eleventh opening) is bathed in a warm glow.

I don't feel like this diminishes the mood of the illustrations; rather, it serves as an escape route for what might otherwise be too heavy of a feeling to deal with. In the accompanying text, we learn that while Ashley is listening to her uncle she "stared down at the grass" and "plucked a few pieces and tied them into knots" (eleventh opening). The image of the uncle cowering in his bed, surrounded by a yellow glow could be Ashley imagining this image while she is looking down at the grass. It could also serve as a reminder to readers and listeners of the story that they are in a safe environment, far removed from the distressing circumstances being discussed. We are free to focus on the image of the uncle in his dormitory, or we can metaphorically pluck at the grass as we experience the story, just as we would be free to do if we were there listening to the uncle.

The ending of the story gives us hope for inter-generational healing, with the uncle stating that he's "waiting for what we lost that day to come back to us," and Ashley promising, "I will wait with you."