The train at the end of my street by Tom Jellett

I still find it quite exciting catching a train (whether to sit upstairs? Or downstairs?) and hopefully some of that excitement is conveyed in the drawings. ... 

(I usually sit upstairs). Tom Jellett

I once had a train at the end of my street so the title of this book really grabbed my attention. I now live in a part of Sydney where there are no trains. Commuters and families have to travel by bus to the CBD to then catch a train. I actually do this every week on my way to a volunteer job. I really enjoy the train part of my journey. It would be fantastic to share this book with your own child before or after a train outing especially if this is not a part of their daily life. The trains in this book are clearly in Sydney but this book will translate easily to other train networks. You might even have a chat about graffiti and also all the supportive inclusions around train stations for people with a visual impairment. 

This new Australian picture book is a joyous celebration of family life and trains. Mum and dad and their two children live near a station. Mum catches the train to work and on weekends the family catch the train or an outing. Our narrator explains all about the different trains, how to buy tickets, and how to stand safely on the platform but this is not a lesson it's just a recount of their happy time together. Most of the story takes place over one day and this is beautifully shown in the front end paper (morning) and back end paper (same scene in the evening).

I am certain this book will be a 2026 CBCA Early Childhood notable. Tom Jellett creates so much movement and (implied) noise on each page. This book is an essential purchase for every preschool and also perfect to add to your school library.  I especially love the double spread scene of the busy station where we see all sorts of people on the move heading to and from their trains in groups or pairs or alone with bags and suitcases, backpacks and strollers. Read more about Tom Jellett here. (Hot stuff by Margaret Clark is one of my all-time favourite read aloud books). 

It’s a simple book that feels very familiar and explores all things train from the perspective of a child who can hear trains from their home. From meeting Mum as she disembarks after work to buying a ticket, checking the platform clock and bringing snacks for a long journey, this book has it all covered! There are many different types of trains and stations, and all are lovingly illustrated with Sydney-based author and illustrator Tom Jellett’s trademark warmth. Jellett has created a delightful celebration of transportation and a perfect book to share with train fan. Readings

Image source: Good Reading Magazine

Dirt by Sea

The Station Cat by Stephen Hogtun

 

The Station Cat: A story of kindness and hope

"This train is not for you, and you have no ticket, you will have to save to come aboard."

A small skinny cat arrives at the old train station. People waiting for trains do not notice her.

"The colour drained from this place a long time ago."

You will have to save lives and save she does. This young half-starved cat connects with various people at the train station as each face a life crisis. 

"Crowds of people went about their sorrow without noticing her at all."

"If they had only looked closer they would have seen ... Eyes of radiant, jade green staring back."

There are wonderful words used in this book. Here are the colours: ginger, cinnamon, lilac, fawn, amber, carmine and violet. Other rich words: sombre, vapour, spectrum of colours, wistful, and vivid.

Share sentences like this with your older students:

"She paced softly upon graceful, pink paw pads ... "

"Waxed wooden herringbone floors reflecting the light blue sky which chorused the light footsteps that now skipped along it."

Publisher blurb: A lonely little kitten wanders into a dull, gray station, full of dull, gray people. Her colorful fur and bright green eyes bring warmth and life to this weary place, and soon people begin to notice the kitten. As she learns about the different travelers and their struggles from loss and loneliness, the little kitten wants to help fill their world with hope and color, too.

Adult readers will probably see deeper themes in this book (you can see these in the labels I assigned this post) as we watch each person engulfed by the despair of their life circumstances but I think readers aged 8+ will simply appreciate that a small act of kindness can mean so much to each of us.

The narrative itself is grave, detailed and evocative, matching the mood created by the colours and is set out as unrhyming verse so that the line breaks emphasise particular words and images. The movements and expressions of the cat are beautifully observed and the depiction of different passengers invites readers to imagine the stories of their lives and what has brought them to the colourless state at the start of the book. Just Imagine

This is a sophisticated presentation of an important message of the value of community and reaching out to others. ... The story stays with you long after you close the pages. More About Books

Every now and then when I go into the city, I decide I just HAVE to buy myself a treat - which for me is a Picture Book. It can take me a long time to decide what to buy because I am fussy, I want to spend my money wisely and I have three main criteria:

• The book has to touch my soul.
• The illustrations have to be exceptional
• If possible the book should be fairly new (this is not essential)

The Station Cat meet two of my three criteria. And I should add I prefer to buy picture books that cost less than AUS$30 although this criteria now needs revising because so many absolutely beautiful and truly special picture books are now closer to AUS45. The Station Cat was published by DK in London and it only cost AU$19.98.

Stephen Hogtun is an author/illustrator who lives on the west coast of sunny Norway in an old house overlooking a lovely fjord. His picture books cover serious topics in a very gentle, child-friendly way and feature visually stunning illustrations.

Here are some other books by Stephen Hogtun - I am curious about his work and how it came to be published in the UK and in English.

The Golden Swift by Lev Grossman

In the first train adventure Kate and her young brother Tom meet all sorts of endangered animals and along the way they learn about the main threats - habitat loss, human behaviour, hunting, global warming and more. In this second instalment Kate once again boards the Silver Arrow but this time she makes discoveries about the ways people are trying to reintroduce species to their old homelands - places where they have not been seen for decades or even centuries. 

Publisher blurb: It's been a year since Kate and Tom became conductors on the Great Secret Intercontinental Railway, and life has changed completely! Delivering animal passengers to their rightful habitats using their very own secret steam train, The Silver Arrow, is exciting and magical and fulfilling. Until one day a new and mysterious train almost rams them off the track! Its name? The Golden Swift. Kate catches a glimpse of the conductors. They're children, like them, and they're dropping animals off at all the wrong stations! Kate is determined to catch up with their rivals and confront them. Her actions will lead to an adventure bigger than she could have dreamed of, racing through the highlands of Western Scotland, trekking in the Australian outback and diving down deep into the Bering Sea on a magical submarine. Kate will have to discover a whole new way to offer endangered animals safe and lasting homes … Read a story extract here. 

The blurb makes all of this sound very straightforward but interfering with nature is not an easy solution. On the surface this seems like a good idea to reintroduce species for example beavers to England, but in reality every action has a reaction. Lynx are taken back to Scotland but when the lynx kill some sheep the farmers begin to shoot them. Some of the relocations are successful but in the end Kate and her new friend Jag decide to retrieve all of the animals they previously moved to a new location.

Read more plot details in this review from Reading Time.

The snarky banter of the talking locomotive is an understated delight ... Kirkus 

Here is the alternate cover:

I do wish this book had back notes. I really wanted to know more about so many of the animals that were mentioned: cassowary, wolverine, kodkod, matamata, Przewalski's horse,Darwin's rhea, red-tailed phascogale, western Javan ebony langur, and the American burying beetle.

The Golden Swift is the second book in this series by Lev Grossman. I did enjoy the first book - The Silver Arrow. This second book was an interesting story but it didn't hold my attention in the same way as the first. The reason for the journey to find and rescue Uncle Herbert felt a little contrived and I was unconvinced when he explained why he had been missing. But mostly I just wanted to know more about each of the relocated animals and more about the real world success or failures of these schemes.

In a strange coincidence this is the second train journey I have read over the last couple of week.

The Dragon on the Train

The Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman

"How could a giant steam train go to all these places?
Why did nobody else know about this?
Was the train invisible?
And who put down all these tracks?
Who sold all these animals their tickets? ...

In a way she didn't want to ask the questions, because she was afraid that doing so might disturb some fragile enchantments, and it would all turn out to be a dream that evaporated as mysteriously as it had arrived."

Recently I was asked to read The Silver Arrow and write 40 words for use in a book catalogue. This was a terrific project BUT hold on - 40 words!!! This is almost impossible for me - if you read this blog you know, if I like a book, I tend to go on and on and on.... Oh well here are my (slightly more than 40) words.

My summary: For Kate’s eleventh birthday, her mysterious uncle delivers a full-sized steam train with fifteen carriages. One is filled with candy but it’s the mystery carriage that will prove most important. Where is the train going? Who are the passengers? On this journey the kids make important discoveries about humans, endangered animals and the balance of life.  It’s a wild ride but it’s sure worth it.

Like the train itself, this story is a fast paced and exciting ride filled with different scenes and interesting passengers. The passengers are all endangered animals who need to share their stories with Kate and her brother Tom but this is not done in a preachy or didactic way. It is all just a natural part of the story as the train stops at various stations and picks up different animals such as a polar bear, baby pangolin, porcupine, heron and a fishing cat. Kate learns about habitat destruction, the poor practices of humans and the dangers of introduced species but as I said you never feel the author has an 'agenda'.

The Silver Arrow will be published in September, 2020. Huge thanks to Beachside Bookshop for my Advance Reader copy. This book would be perfect to read aloud or for an independent reader 9+.

Here is the publisher blurb from Bloomsbury: Kate wasn't expecting much when she wrote to her wealthy estranged uncle to ask for a birthday present. Certainly she wasn't expecting a colossal steam train called the Silver Arrow to arrive on her doorstep.

Despite parental misgivings, curiosity overwhelms Kate and her brother Tom and they climb aboard, only for the train's engine to roar into life. Soon they reach a train station where an assortment of strange and beautiful creatures are waiting with tickets in their mouths, and Kate and Tom begin to understand that their job will be to see them safely home – if they can.

Lev Grossman's first children's book is a journey you'll never forget: a rip-roaring adventure from desert plains to snow-covered mountains and everything in between. Packed with exciting creatures from the indignant porcupine to the lost polar bear and the adorable baby pangolin, The Silver Arrow is a classic story about saving our endangered animals and the places they live.

I would pair this book with:

The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel

The Train to Impossible Places

Whistle up the Chimney by Nan Hunt illustrated by Craig Smith

Tuesday Treasure

Mrs Millie Mack lives alone in her little cottage. She is content with her routine. Looking after her garden and enjoying seasonal produce. She makes raspberry jam in summer, pickles, chutneys and relishes in autumn and in the winter she knits beside her fire.

"When winter came she waited for the truck to bring the heavy wood she had ordered. ... 'This is old railway wood and that's half a door from a bogey louvre.' When he said that a most delicious tingle ran up Mrs Millie Mack's spine."

A most surprising and wonderful thing happens when Mrs Millie Mack puts this new wood on her fire. A huge steam train - an express train - rushes out of her chimney and disappears out the door and into the night. The next night there is another steam train - a mixed goods train and on the third night "out trundled a four-coach all-stations passenger train. It slowed down (and) ... she just had time to wave to the children sitting with their faces pressed against the windows..."  Mrs Millie Mack has the best winter of her life. It is so exciting but she never "did find out what a bogey louvre was."

Discover a bogie louvre here https://www.victorianrailways.net/freight/freight%20pages/vlx/vlx.html

Whistle up the Chimney was published in 1981 and it won the CBCA Picture Book of the Year award in 1982. I need to ask again why is this treasure out of print? Surely our award winners should stay on a publisher back list. I'm sure this book will still be on the shelves of many Primary school libraries in Australia. You could read this book as a way to explore steam trains and perhaps even knitting!

Here is an interview with Craig Smith where he talks about his many books. You might like to look at my review of Black Dog his earliest book.