Talk:Locomotive (book)/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Mz7 (talk · contribs) 18:30, 24 August 2019 (UTC)

One of the most memorable books from my childhood, Poppy, was also illustrated by Brian Floca. For that reason, I am looking forward to reviewing this article! Mz7 (talk) 18:30, 24 August 2019 (UTC)

Remarkably, according to the SLJ interview, Locomotive is dedicated to Avi, the author of Poppy! Mz7 (talk) 18:51, 24 August 2019 (UTC)

That's pretty cool. Barkeep49 (talk) 19:33, 24 August 2019 (UTC)

• Quick fix: all section headings should be switched to sentence case per MOS:SECTIONS, so Background and Publication and Writing and Illustrations should be changed to Background and publication and Writing and illustrations, respectively. Mz7 (talk) 18:36, 24 August 2019 (UTC)

 Done

Some notes

A few of these notes are stylistic nitpicks that you may feel free to disregard if you disagree with them—I'm pretty flexible.

Lead

• "… the book uses the concept of following a family …"
  • This could be made more concise: "… the book follows a family …"

 Done

• "In the book the workers, passengers, landscape, and effects of building and operating the first transcontinental railroad are all detailed."
  • This could be rewritten in the active voice: "The book details the workers, passengers, landscape, and effects of building and operating the first transcontinental railroad."
  • Or alternatively, "In the book, Floca details ..."

 Done

• Perhaps include a link to the article about the First Transcontinental Railroad in the lead.

 Done

Background and publication

• "Floca's biggest challenge was having to rethink the who the point-of-view characters would be from the train's crew to a family" - this sentence is a little unclear and may need to be rewritten/elaborated upon (I also think there's an extra "the" in there).
  • I would perhaps separate into two sentences and explain further why this was challenging to Floca: "Floca's biggest challenge was having to rethink who the focal characters would be. Originally, the story focused on a single train's crew as it made its way across the transcontinental railroad, but Floca had to change the focus to a family after learning that a single crew would not typically travel the entire length of the transcontinental railroad."

Removed the extra the and added a few more words to make more clear what the issue was but kept it as one sentence. Barkeep49 (talk)

• Date formatting: I would change The book was published September 3, 2013 by … to The book was published on September 3, 2013, by …

 Done

Synopsis

• In the first sentence, there is no need for Locomotive to be in bold face.

Indeed there's not.  Done Barkeep49 (talk)

Writing and illustrations

• "Floca described the book first as a picture book but one where he wand to," — I think you meant "wanted to" here. The comma is also unnecessary since the quote flows naturally as part of the sentence.

 Done

• "They noted his use of techniques …" — the word "noted" in this context is probably fine, but I do want to make you aware that it is listed at WP:SAID as a "word to watch". I've seen the word used all throughout Wikipedia though, so this likely isn't a big deal.

Yeah I'll defend its limited use but I sure did have a lot of them and so I've changed most of them. Barkeep49 (talk)

• "The book's oversized Floca's design of the book also enhanced the reading experience" — this sentence may need to be rewritten—perhaps remove the phrase "the book's oversized"

Oversized is important there - the book is noticeably bigger than your average picture book. Changed the start of the sentence. Barkeep49 (talk)

Reception

• "The critical reception for Locomotive was notably positive, however, some critics expressed concern over the large age range it was intended to be read by or to."
  • The first comma before "however" should be replaced with a semicolon to avoid a run-on sentence.
  • I'm thinking "the large age range it was intended to be read by or to" could be made more concise: perhaps to "its target audience's wide age range"

Most pictures books tend to be read aloud rather than read independently. The fact that this one was attempting to appeal to both kinds of readers was a notable theme in the reviews so I'd prefer the length to concision here. Barkeep49 (talk)

• I actually wasn't familiar with what a "starred review" was until I looked it up after reading this article. Perhaps include a link to your article starred review?

That article's genesis was GA reviewers not knowing the term so yes I agree it should be linked.  Done Barkeep49 (talk)

References

• The Kirkus Reviews URL that you listed seems to be closed-access. I think I found an open-access version on Kirkus's website here: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/brian-floca/locomotive-floca/ Could you confirm that this is the same source? If it is, then I think it'd be helpful to include in the citation.

Good find.  Done Barkeep49 (talk)

I'll give the article another read-through tomorrow to see if I catch anything else! Mz7 (talk) 08:46, 25 August 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for your time so far Mz7. See my responses above. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 16:00, 25 August 2019 (UTC)

Pass

That's it, I think. I couldn't find anything else that would prevent this from being a GA. As expected, this was a fascinating article to read—inducing some nostalgia for my childhood days on this last August weekend. Great work, Barkeep49! Thank you for responding my notes lightning-fast. It was a pleasure to work with you, as always. Now I need to find Locomotive in a library and read it for myself. Mz7 (talk) 20:54, 25 August 2019 (UTC)