Ghost Train (book)

Ghost Train is a 1996 children's book by Paul Yee illustrated by Harvey Chan.

Plot

Dark, glowing oil paintings illustrate a moving fantasy about the Chinese workmen who died far from home building the railroad through the mountains of North America. The story, first published in Canada, is told through the eyes of a young girl, Choon-yi, born to poor peasants in southern China. She has only one arm, and her mother rejects her, but her father loves her dearly and encourages her artistic gift. When she is 12, her father leaves for America to work on the railway being built through the mountains. After two years he sends her money to join him, but when she gets there, she learns that her father has died. He appears to her in a dream and asks her to paint him on the train he built. The full-page paintings show her traveling on the hurtling engines; we see the power of the railroad and the sorrow of the men who died building it, their clothing stained with mud and blood. ^[1][2]

About the Author: Paul Yee

Author of Ghost Train, Paul Yee was born in Spalding, Saskatchewan, Canada and grew up in Chinatown in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Yee attended Lord Strathcona Elementary School, Britannia Secondary School and graduated from the University of British Columbia with Bachelor's and master's degrees in Canadian History. Paul Yee worked for the City of Vancouver Archives as an archivist as well as at the Archives of Ontario. He is a member of Writers Union of Canada and Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators and Performers. Yee has resided in Toronto, Canada since 1988.^[3]

Awards

Paul Yee has been a recipient of a handful of awards throughout his career. Yee received Honourable Mention for the Canada Council Prizes for Children's Literature in 1986, and the City of Vancouver Book Award in 1989. In the year 1990, Yee was awarded the British Columbia Book Prize for Children's Literature, IODE Violet Downey Book Award, the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize and Parent's Choice Honour Book designation. For his children's book, Ghost Train, he received a Governor General's award from Canada Council in 1996. Yee was a Vancouver Book Award finalist in 2004 and shortlisted for the Rocky Mountain Book Award in 2006. Finally, in the year 2006, Paul Yee was nominated for the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize.^[4]

About the Illustrator: Harvey Chan

Harvey Chan was born in Hong Kong, China and currently resides in Toronto, Canada. Chan graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design. A primary interest in his paintings, drawings and sculptures is human figure. Throughout Chan's career as an illustrator, he has received numerous awards. Chan also had the honour of creating two series of coin designs for the Royal Canadian Mint as well as designing the Year of the Rat stamp for Canada Post. Aside from Chan's personal work, he has found time to teach at the Ontario College of Art and Design and Sheridan College.^[5]

References