Julie Lawson is a fine storyteller, and her latest picture book, based on the September 21, 1927 derailment of a silk train along the Fraser River, is another winner. Emma, the daughter of the stationmaster, knows her trains. The silk trains (“silkers”) are her favourites because they carry such a rare Chinese cargo, travel at fantastic speeds, and make other trains wait. When a silker ends up in the river, the railroad offers a reward for the lost bales, so the whole town goes fishing for silk. Emma gets carried away, continuing to hunt for the silk long after everyone else has stopped. Finally she finds a brilliant red-gold length in the river, but is carried away (this time literally) by the current as she clutches her prize. She manages to crawl onto a tiny island, and ties the silk to the trees, fashioning a banner that catches the light of a passing silker. The train doesn’t stop – silkers never do – but it slows down long enough at the station to let Emma’s father know where she is.

Artist Paul Mombourquette, a newcomer to children’s books, does justice to Lawson’s exciting story. His dramatic, mostly double-page spreads combine the loose look of watercolour with the richness of acrylic. His work reminds me somewhat of Geoff Butler’s paintings in The Killick and Les Tait’s for The White Stone in the Castle Wall. Like them, Mombourquette employs a painterly style and a strong palette, and creates characters who are at one with their setting. (My British Columbia-born spouse assures me that the landscape is right, though he wonders whether the small rowboat that rescues Emma would be able to resist the Fraser River’s current.) Mombourquette certainly captures the terror of being swept away: he depicts this scene from above, with Emma (a vulnerable purple dot) attached to the silk (a larger scarlet swirl) in an immense churning blue river.

Lawson has explored both Chinese culture and British Columbia (sometimes together) in her books; Emma and the Silk Train seems a natural extension of these interests. She credits the staff of C.P. Archives and the Revelstoke Railway Museum, so has clearly done her research. The story concludes with a historical note. Pair Emma with Shortcut, by Donald Crews, for another train adventure with frissons and a happy ending.