ALA Booklist (Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 1991)

With its wild, dreamy adventure, this fantasy also has a most satisfying commonsense logic, and the picture book plays off the opposites with laid-back humor. On a class field trip to learn all about dinosaurs, the kids in Miss Pym's grade-school class take the train from New York City to Utah. On the journey, they travel back in time, and when they get off at their stop, they don't find their motel, though they do get to study dinosaurs. Real ones. The words mimic the typical school project, while the richly toned paintings show kids camping out in a prehistoric paradise. Lolling on the back of a stegosaurus, the narrator decides she'll study its eating habits. Her bespectacled classmate gets some great photographs of the area--the facing page shows him taking pictures of an active volcano from the back of a pterodactyl glider. Every afternoon, they swim and play ball with their new friends. Then it's time to hug good-bye and take the train back home. New York City seems to be as they left it, except that the last painting shows one extra passenger staring in astonishment from the train window. A story that makes you wish you were there. (Reviewed Sept. 1, 1991)

Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 1991)

A group of students on a field trip to Utah to study a dinosaur dig are transported back to the Mesozoic era where they meet the giant reptiles roaming through their natural habitat. Although the text is reminiscent of Chris Van Allsburg's work, the book has its own humorous appeal.

Kirkus Reviews

Miss Pym takes her class on a very special train that travels not only from New York west but back in time: they see Civil War uniforms in Pittsburgh and snowy mastodons beyond Ohio, finally arriving at a warm, swampy campground where they photograph and romp with various dinosaurs before starting on their return journey. In her picture-book debut, Ewart echoes Van Allsburg in her dramatic use of light and points of view; with humor and skill, she also captures the children's mixed awe and delight in their experience. A good entry in an ever-popular genre. (Picture book. 4-8)"

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

``Fleischman's understated text sets up the illustrations as punch lines in this tongue-in-cheek time-travel adventure,'' said PW . Ages 5-9. (Feb.)

School Library Journal (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

K-Gr 3-- Does the Polar Express rust idly for 364 days a year? Or does it perhaps run off-peak as the Time Train, a.k.a. the Rocky Mountain Unlimited ? A class trip from New York to the Dinosaur National Monument stays on track geographically, but chronologically it's a bit of a surprise. Horse-drawn carriages, Civil War officers, and herds of bison mark the turning back of the clock, accelerated when an Ice Age snowscape and woolly mammoth pass by. The final destination is damp and tropical--but swarming with dinosaurs. With study projects (on live subjects) and play, the days pass--until one morning the train returns to take them home. The text maintains an ironic reserve, never commenting directly on the unusual circumstances depicted. Ewart's warm watercolors brighten the simplified volumes that recall Van Allsburg's style. Young passengers who seasonally line up for The Polar Express should be delighted with a year-round excursion on The Time Train.--Patricia Dooley, University of Washington, Seattle