Edgar: The 7:58

Edgar’s crew was made up of five people: the hoghead, the hothead, the front snake, the back snake and the conductor ― the fathead, or swellhead. But, much to Edgar’s disgust, his crew argued all the time.  Argue. Argue. Argue. Chaw. Chaw. Chaw. In fact they argued so much that they couldn’t get the train to Pittsville on time (because that’s what people expected and why do things differently?). Their story would have continued in the same old way, except for one thing.  Edgar started to talk. What does one do about THAT the crew argued? Trains are supposed to be QUIET!  But Edgar was soon to prove that he had a mind of his own. Time to do something different, Edgar told them (and then snorted twice through his smokestack). Time to learn a new way!


Edgar, as it turned out, could make his own track. He could go up or down or sideways and spin around the world in the most remarkable way. Together he and his crew visited new places:  Paris, Madagascar, Tokyo, Berlin, and Moscow. They even met James Wickleberry Britannica (if you can believe THAT). "I'm the smartest engine in the world,” said Edgar. “I can go anywhere a steamboat can, or an airplane can, or a train can, and a lot of places they can't. I'm the finest traveling machine in creation ― "  And most readers will agree that indeed he is.


A unique children’s book of the 1930s by a famed Iowa author, complete with drawings by award-winning children’s illustrator, Lois Lenski.