Gordon Lightfoot wrote one of his best-loved songs,  “Canadian Railroad Trilogy,” in Canada’s centennial year, 1967. Lightfoot’s lyrics celebrate the vision and incredible effort that went into building the Canadian Pacific Railroad. They also celebrate the rugged and splendid terrain through which the railroad passes, and their rhythms suggest the desperation, longing, and exultation experienced by those who laboured on it.

Now Ian Wallace, one of Canada’s foremost picture book artists, has produced illustrations worthy of Lightfoot’s song in their intensity, evocative power, and shifting moods. Working in what is for him a new medium (chalk pastels), and creating scenes ranging from mountain landscapes to dream-like collages to humorous interiors, Wallace adds his own impressions of what the railroad has meant to Canada – including its effect on the First Nations and the heavy death toll among labourers.

In fascinating endnotes, Wallace comments on the symbolism and associations the images contain, such as the inclusion of a young Gordon Lightfoot’s likeness among the navvies singing in their bunkhouse as they’re “livin’ on stew and drinkin’ bad whiskey, / Bendin’ our backs ’til the long day is done.”

While the book’s list of suggested reading is aimed at young people, Wallace’s illustrations and his comments on their creation will appeal to adults as well. Melody line and chords are provided, but this beautiful book will doubtless send readers to YouTube to hear Lightfoot sing the song himself.