Tonya Engel illustrated The Northbound Train, written by Leslie Johnson Piotrowski and publishing from Abrams Books in January 2027. Based on the author’s family history, The Northbound Train offers a powerful child’s-eye view of the Great Migration, when more than six million Black American families left the South to escape Jim Crow laws and racial violence. Jane and her parents sit in a segregated train car, traveling from Birmingham, Alabama, to Chicago, Illinois. Once the train crosses the Mason-Dixon line, Jane sees Black and white families sitting side by side for the first time.
