The Railway Children

Reader’s Review

Readers will hopefully love this gentle classic about a family thrown into difficult times when the father must leave in a mysterious manner. The three children and their mother have to leave their comfortable life and move to a cottage in the countryside, where they now struggle to make ends meet. There’s lots of adventures, love and humour, and commendable themes of helping others and never giving up hope (their faith in God is also mentioned). However it may take some convincing to get kids to read the book, as the language and descriptions are old-fashioned, and the story may seem overly sentimental to those used to modern fiction.

To look out for

• Language: Siblings occasionally bicker, and Peter says ‘shut up’ and calls his sister a ‘prig’. The word gay is used in its original meaning.
• Violence: The siblings get into a number of very perilous situations including almost being run over by a train, hiding in a dark and dank tunnel, and entering a building on fire. A Russian prisoner describes some of his experiences as a prisoner of war. Peter trips over a rake and gets cut.