Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The Railway Children
Fiction
For ages 8 to 11
Faber & Faber, 2016 ISBN: 978-0571331130
Roberta, Peter and Phyllis have a very happy life living with their parents in a little house. In their leisure time they play with their toy trains, and listen to the wonderful stories that their mother shares with them. Then, quite suddenly everything changes. The children have to leave their happy little home, and worst still their father is taken from them for some unknown reason.
The three children and their mother move to the country. It is terribly boring for the children until they discover that a railway line runs near their new home. Soon they have made friends with some of the people who work on the railway, and they even make friends with some of the passengers who ride on the train. Days full of adventure soon become commonplace. On one occasion the children help a boy who is injured, and on another they assist a man who is ill and friendless.
Though they are getting used to their new life, more than anything the children wish that they had their father back. Roberta finds out where he is and why he is there, and she starts to think that perhaps there is something that she can do to get her father back. There must be some way to help him
This remarkable story has stood the test of time so well. The adventures of the three railway children are still as exciting and charming as they were when the book was first published in 1906.
