Terrific Trains

TRAINS FOR OLDER READERS

	Gertrude Chandler Warner’s The Boxcar Children (Albert Whitman & Company, 1989), originally published in 1924, features four orphan siblings who – terrified of being separated – set up house on their own in an abandoned boxcar. As of the end of the book, they’ve been adopted by a wealthy grandfather who preserves the boxcar. Many many sequels. For ages 7-10.
	In Lev Grossman’s The Silver Arrow (Little, Brown, 2020), Kate for her 11th birthday gets a train – an actual steam locomotive – from rich Uncle Herbert, and off she and her brother go, picking up animals holding tickets. The train is marvelous (complete with a library and a candy car), but the animal passengers have serious messages. An environmental fantasy with a train for ages 8-12.
	E. Nesbit’s The Railway Children (Random House, 2012), originally published in 1906, is still a great read. The main characters – three children, with their mother – move to a house near the railroad when their father mysteriously disappears. Through their interest in the trains, the kids are eventually able to find and vindicate their father, who has been unfairly accused of spying. For ages 9-12. Also see the movie version (2000).
	From Project Gutenberg, see the text of The Railway Children online.
	Daniel Pinkwater’s The Neddiad: How Neddie Took the Train, Went to Hollywood, and Saved Civilization (Sandpiper, 2009) is hysterically funny – and it involves train travel, as Neddie’s father on a whim relocates the entire family from Chicago to LA, so that they can eat cheeseburgers at the Brown Derby, a restaurant shaped like a hat. The plot involves a shaman named Melvin, a mysterious turtle token, a phantom bellboy, and several of Neddie’s friends, among them Yggdrasil (Iggy), a very competent girl named after the mythological World Tree. For ages 10-13.
	Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express (Harper, 2011) features debonair detective Hercule Poirot (he of the little gray cells and the enormous moustache), a famous train, and a wealth of suspects. For ages 13 and up.
	The 1974 movie version of Murder on the Orient Express stars Albert Finney as Poirot and an impressive cast of potential murderers, among them Lauren Bacall, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, and Vanessa Redgrave. Rated PG. The 2017 version – which stars Kenneth Branagh, in a spectacular moustache, as Poirot – is rated PG-13.
	P.G. Bell’s The Train to Impossible Places (Feiwel and Friends, 2018), the first of a trilogy, features the Impossible Postal Express, a troll-operated delivery service that travels everywhere – including a pass through Suzy’s living room, after which she’s off to save the impossible universe with the help of Frederick, a boy imprisoned in a snow globe. An exciting fantasy adventure for ages 10-14.
	In Paul Mosier’s Train I Ride (HarperCollins, 2018), Rydr – whose caretaking grandmother has died– is heading from Palm Springs to Chicago by train to stay with an uncle she’s never met. She’s broke, but resilient – and as the trip progresses she makes connections with the people on board, including a traveling poet, a gay snack bar worker, Dorothea, her assigned Amtrak escort, and a misfit Boy Scout. A wonderful, painful, and uplifting read for ages 11-16.
	China Mieville’s Railsea is set in a universe of continents and islands connected by train tracks (the railsea) and populated by moldywarpes, giant tunneling mole rats, tundra worms, and blood rabbits. Our hero, Sham ap Soorap, is part of the crew of the moletrain Medes, where he serves as apprentice to the train’s doctor, while the Captain obsessively pursues a vicious ivory-colored mole that took her arm off years ago. (Sound like Moby Dick? It’s supposed to.) There’s also a treasure map and pirates. For ages 14 and up.
	Michael Crichton’s The Great Train Robbery (Harper, 2008) is riveting story and a fascinating look at the Victorian era, with adventure, romance, and trains. Highly recommended for teens and adults – and a great connection to 19th-century history.
	The 1978 movie version of The Great Train Robbery stars Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland, and Lesley-Anne Down. Rated PG.
	Traveler extraordinaire Paul Theroux is known for fabulous train journeys, recounted in such train classics as The Great Railway Bazaar (Mariner Books, 2006), in which he travels through Asia on the Orient Express and more; Riding the Iron Rooster (Mariner Books, 2006), an account of a train trip through China, and many more. A great connection to geography for teens

ORPHAN TRAINS

From the mid-19^th century to the 1920s, New York City’s Children’s Aid Society shipped abandoned or orphaned children by train to adoptive families in the west. These trains came to be known as the Orphan Trains.

	In Eve Bunting’s picture book Train to Somewhere (Sandpiper, 2000), shy, plain Marianne has been sent west on an orphan train, at each stop along the way looking vainly for her real mother. Finally, in Somewhere, Iowa, the train’s last stop, she finds a loving home with a couple who had thought they wanted a boy. For ages 5-8.
	Joan Lowery Nixon’s Orphan Train Adventures series follows the adventures of the six Kelly children (Frances Mary, Mike, Megan, Danny, Peg, and Petey), sent west on the orphan train to find new homes when their widowed mother is no longer able to support them. There are seven books in the series, beginning with A Family Apart (Laurel Leaf, 1995). Suspense, adventure, and mystery for ages 9 and up.
	Andrea Warren’s Orphan Train Rider (Sandpiper, 1998) alternates a history of the orphan train movement with the real-life story of Lee Nailling, sent to Nebraska via orphan train in 1926. A fascinating account, illustrated with period black-and-white photos, for ages 10 and up.
	Also by Andrea Warren, We Rode the Orphan Trains (Sandpiper, 2004) is a collection of personal histories of eight different orphan train riders. For ages 10 and up.
	Christine Baker Kline’s Orphan Train Girl (William Morrow, 2013) is the story of young Molly, who has spent her life moving from foster home to foster home, and the bond she forms with Vivian, now in her nineties, who was an orphan train child. The original book is for teens and adults; there’s also a Young Readers version (3018) for ages 8-12.
	In PBS’s American Experience series, the 60-minute film The Orphan Trains (2006) is fascinating history of the movement, with first-person accounts and period photos. Included at the website are background information, an extensive resource list, and a teacher’s guide.