Rating: 
Summary: Plain?...
Review: This is an exceptional book about 3 children who live near a railroad and thoroughly enjoy it.. They live and let live until one day their relatively ordinary lives come to a screeching halt as it did when their father went away. They are friendly with an old man who helps them find out the mystery of their father's abrupt disappearance. They finally get the family back together and the live happily ever after etc. etc. etc. Though this may seem common and uninteresting, there is some other force that made me sit up late into the night to finish the book. You may understand why I did that when you read the book. It is very enjoyable, (but that may be because I am a child) and I thoroughly recommend it to children . Enjoy! Cheers!!!!!!!!! : )
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful story...
Review: This is one of my favorite children's books! The characters are lovable and (for the most part) believable, the story is exciting, and the ending--well, the ending is marvelous! It is the kind of book you can read over and over again(I have) and never get tired of it(I haven't). I am not, in general, the type to cry over books, but I must admit I cry every time I read the end!:) They are tears of joy, though. If you love a good story with a happy ending, read this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Family values with Edwardian charm
Review: This sentimental favorite children's book has the moral values of E. Nesbitt, who was a famous liberal activist in England. She creates a household utopian vision of a world where people are naturally good and where parents raise their children to be helpful and honest and brave.This provides the background charm for a really lovely tale about a family in distress who sticks together bravely and provides a shining example to all around them, while being aided by equally high-minded and kind folks around them. A knock on the door at the idyllic middle class town home of the children ends with a tragedy that they can scarcely understand. But Mother is brave and despite rumors of terrible things, they make their way to a more modest home in the country, next to a railway line. The children become friends with the trains and the regular commuters who wave at them. Their fascination with the train results in a heroic rescue. Meanwhile, their situation is sometimes difficult, and they develop some remarkable strategies for getting aid. There is a happy ending. The morals taught to the children are particularly British (helpful, kind, brave) but certainly apply to us as well. The goodness that the children spread is really a lovely message and contributes to the charm and longevity of this great favorite. Good for reading aloud.
Rating:
Summary: Another childhood favourite
Review: This was a book my mother had grown up on, and one that she passed on down to my sister and I. Although hardly a modern story this book is a classic tale of a family learning how to start over, in circumstances far different from those they are accustomed to. The true magic, however, lies in this books portrayal of sibling relationships....a simpler and more innocent time perhaps; but, stories of families will never really get old.
Rating:
Summary: Cheerfully playing at being Poor
Review: Three English children in turn-of-the-century London are suddenly obliged to leave their home and take up rural residence at Three Chimneys cottage. They are additionally confused by the unexplained disappearance of their father, who was falsely accused of espionage and wrongfully incarcerated. The kids seek solace in their new life by becoming familiar with unexplored means of transportation: the canal and the railroad. Their plucky mother undertakes to write novels while she homeschools her inquisitive offspring: 12-year-old Roberta (Bobbie), 10-year-old Peter, and 7-year-old Phyllis. These children quarrel and squabble, play and dream like normal kids, while secretly harboring fears about their absent father. Could he be dead, since no one was allowed to inform them of the painful truth? Would their calm, loving mother permit them to live a lie? During the next 6 months these decent kids gradually carve out a niche for themsleves in the lives (and ultimately the hearts) of the local citizens--particularly railway personnel. As they expand their social horizons, they increase their knowledge of the ways and quirks of the iron horse. They even learn lessons in tasteful charity and Christian compassion, as they exist in a kind of emotional limbo--just waiting for some unknown event. Despite Nesbit's admittedly quaint literary style (with many asides addresesd to the reader, and obvious predilection for one of her characters), THE RAILWAY CHILDREN will transport readers back to a much simpler time--an era of true family values and homespun social virtues. Don't expect the fantasy elements of THE PHOENIX AND THE CARPET in this gentle story; just relax and enjoy a journey into the past, when chidren were taught to wait and hope. This is a book for children of all ages, inscribed on the tablets of Home and Hearth. And who is the mysterious but kindly old gentleman on their beloved Green Dragon?
Rating:
Summary: Cheerfully playing at being Poor
Review: Three English children in turn-of-the-century London are suddenly obliged to leave their home and take up rural residence at Three Chimneys cottage. They are additionally confused by the unexplained disappearance of their father, who was falsely accused of espionage and wrongfully incarcerated. The kids seek solace in their new life by becoming familiar with unexplored means of transportation: the canal and the railroad. Their plucky mother undertakes to write novels while she homeschools her inquisitive offspring: 12-year-old Roberta (Bobbie), 10-year-old Peter, and 7-year-old Phyllis. These children quarrel and squabble, play and dream like normal kids, while secretly harboring fears about their absent father. Could he be dead, since no one was allowed to inform them of the painful truth? Would their calm, loving mother permit them to live a lie? During the next 6 months these decent kids gradually carve out a niche for themsleves in the lives (and ultimately the hearts) of the local citizens--particularly railway personnel. As they expand their social horizons, they increase their knowledge of the ways and quirks of the iron horse. They even learn lessons in tasteful charity and Christian compassion, as they exist in a kind of emotional limbo--just waiting for some unknown event. Despite Nesbit's admittedly quaint literary style (with many asides addresesd to the reader, and obvious predilection for one of her characters), THE RAILWAY CHILDREN will transport readers back to a much simpler time--an era of true family values and homespun social virtues. Don't expect the fantasy elements of THE PHOENIX AND THE CARPET in this gentle story; just relax and enjoy a journey into the past, when chidren were taught to wait and hope. This is a book for children of all ages, inscribed on the tablets of Home and Hearth. And who is the mysterious but kindly old gentleman on their beloved Green Dragon?
| 
