[FUN WITH READING 2018-20237A] The Railway Children

20237蔡宇倫 (TSAI, YU-LUN)

[BOOK PROFILE]

TITLE OF THE BOOK: THE RAILWAY CHILDREN

NAME OF THE AUTHOR: EDITH NESBIT

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 1905

ISBN: 9780194791281

The Railway Children      

Bobbie, Peter and Roberta were distraught when their father went missing. After a trip to London, they discovered the thrill of the railway and began to unravel the mystery of their father’s disappearance.

This is a story of three children, Bobbie, Peter and Roberta, who lived in a respectable suburban villa with a wonderful mother and father and a cook and servants, until one day great disgrace and poverty fell on them. Father was taken away to prison, and they had to move to a poor cottage in the country near a railway line.

Mother wrote stories to earn what little they lived on and they used to be poor and had to learn not to steal coal from the railway station, even if they had so little to keep warm by. Sometimes they argued and had crises, as one did, but in time they made many new friends, and amusing adventures happened near the railway and the canal. They developed the habit of waving to the train as it went past and sometimes the people in the coaches waved back. Their friendly habits made them one special friend in particular, who although he mostly just went by in the train, eventually got to know them, and helped them out in various ways. And somehow all the good things that they did added up together and ended up coming back to them, and there was a happy ending to it all. The story was so realistic and alive that I felt like I was with them! And I’d love to be in a part of those adventures theses children had taken.