Next Stop, Grand Central by Maira Kalman, Maira Kalman (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

At Grand Central Station, Chief of Police George Coppola finds lost people, and Mr. Chidchester, head of the Lost and Found, finds lost dogs. Marino Marino makes oyster stew, while thinking up interesting math problems. A man in a porkpie hat buys cherry pies. Maira Kalman's stylized artwork, along with entertaining text, brilliantly captures the excitement of Grand Central Station, "the busiest, fastest, biggest place there is."

The New York Times Book Review - Kyle Crichton

As always, the witty illustrations are Kalman's strong point....I'll leave the last word to my daughter, "It's a good book, but you'd better be in the third grade or be very smart."

Publishers Weekly

PW wrote, "Kalman succeeds in recreating the station's frenetic pace and the blurred sense of passersby, and her creative reportage conveys the importance of all the individuals whose lives intersect at New York's Grand Central Terminal." Ages 4-8. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Children's Literature

In her usual frenetic and unique style, Kalman takes kids on a tour of the busiest railway station in the world--Grand Central. Everyday, half a million people make their way to trains either heading in or out of New York City. Kalman also introduces the workers who keep the place running and in order--from the building manager to the man who changes the light bulbs. She presents a strange assemblage of passengers rushing through the station or enjoying a bite to eat at the food stands. And what about the trains--her engineer is Mary Donch and the conductors, we learn, each have a different symbol on their ticket punches. There is plenty of humor and lots of factual tidbits in this amusing look at Grand Central Station.

School Library Journal

K-Gr 5--Lovers embrace, loiterers loiter, hungry travelers nosh, and harried commuters grand-jete through the panoramic pages of this exuberant tribute to New York City's newly renovated landmark. Kalman re-creates the energy of the place--and the energy of the place is people. Pages swarming with a variety of figures, each intent on his or her own destination and purpose, generate compositions alive with movement, placing readers squarely in the middle of the hustle and the bustle where people-watching is inevitable. The artist breathes life into her teeming masses from Police Chief Coppola, who keeps the place safe from "no-goodniks;" to singer Olga Shmedvig, whose high notes are often mistaken for a train's whistle; to Mrs. Clarence Pffafenburger, who left her show dog Mitzi on the train to Greenwich; and many more. Not to mention those nameless characters in the background whom readers can wonder about. Along with her trademark zany humor, Kalman has managed to weave a surprising amount of information into her text, such as how many people pass through, how many trains there are, how the light bulbs are changed, where you go to complain, and who built the place in the first place. From cover to cover, this is a giddy, quirky, unforgettable romp through "the busiest, fastest, biggest place there is," the truly grand Grand Central Station. All aboard!--Marcia Hupp, Mamaroneck Public Library, NY

The New York Times Book Review - Kyle Crichton

As always, the witty illustrations are Kalman's strong point....I'll leave the last word to my daughter, "It's a good book, but you'd better be in the third grade or be very smart."

The Horn Book Magazine - Lauren Adams

The book maintains an appropriately frenetic pace, parading the nonstop activity across the pages in a conglomeration of colorful vignettes...The intersection of half a million lives each day, Grand Central is a grand adventure—and Kalman's book is a first-class ticket to ride.

Kirkus Reviews

Kalman (Swami on Rye, 1995, etc.) plays eccentric tour guide to the Big Apple's Grand Central Station, just in time for the building's big re-opening. Kalman introduces readers to passengers, conductors, light-bulb changers, and complaint takers, interviewing all the individuals that collectively make the big train station buzz: Minna Fuchsbaum says, "This lollipop is delicious"; Ethel Schloogle is headed for a hair cut; the Oblensky twins take tap-dance lessons at Carnegie Hall. Some of the tidbits are tantalizing (diagrams of the shapes of each conductor's signature hole punch), others deliberately extraneous (paintings of Einstein, Pasternak, and the pyramids at Giza). If some of the eccentricities are strained, the paintings are vivacious as ever and truly capture the building's grandeur and eclecticism, in everything from its lofty star-gilded ceiling to the scurry of individuals below, the lure of destinations known and new, and the greetings and farewells that are part of every trip. (Picture book. 5-9) .

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