My Subway Runs

My Subway Runs

A review of My Subway Runs by James Gladstone

Published on March 11, 2026

With a child’s sense of excitement, a young boy accompanies his mother on a subway ride downtown. Curious, enchanted, and sometimes a little overwhelmed, he descends further and further underground to discover a bustling world filled with whole new sights and sounds. 

My Subway Runs
James Gladstone
Illustrated by Pierre Pratt

Groundwood Books
$21.99
hardcover
32pp
9781773067544

From grey puddles and screeching wheels to packed subway cars and a man he calls the “sleeper in the corner,” the boy takes in every detail – eventually descending at Union Station, where even more excitement awaits. By the time the pair head home again, the boy has gained a new perspective on the city and the people who live there.

Written in a wonderfully poetic style that mimics the movement of the subway, My Subway Runs offers a positive message that helps to demystify public transit. By presenting the journey from the boy’s point of view, the story brings us into a space where the mundane is suddenly exhilarating and people normally overlooked are now able to be seen.

Award-winning illustrator Pierre Pratt fills each page with his unmistakable style, providing young readers with a rich and vivid tapestry of detail that invites them to lean in and take a closer look.mRb

Tina Wayland holds an MA in Creative Writing from Concordia, winning the department’s McKeen Award in 2021 and 2023. She’s published in such places as carte blanche, Headlight, yolk, LBRNTH, and forthcoming in Scrivener, as well as longlisted for the CBC Nonfiction Prize and shortlisted for Room Magazine’s Short Forms Contest. Tina is currently writing a book about her Lithuanian grandmother, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. 

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