Reviews - The Railway Children

659 reviews for:

This kids book appears on a couple 'must read' lists... though after reading it, that honor is not so clear. A current parallel is the separation of immigrant children from their parents by pres Voldemort, er, Dumbtruck.

beautifulminutiae's review against another edition

2.0

I tried so hard to like this book. It's a classic and even people who don't like Nesbit's other books love this one. We were reading it out loud as a family and just couldn't finish it. We got 3/4 of the way through before calling it quits. The chapters are SO long (20-30 pages), the language is strange (not like most classics. It uses "hip" lingo from when it was written that's difficult to understand. Imagine reading a book 100 years from now that uses words like "woke," "bae," "lit," etc.) and NOTHING HAPPENS. I imagine at the end you finally find out what happened to their father, but at the point where we quit, no one cared anymore. This is my 3rd Nesbit book and she's officially not my favorite.

yangyvonne's review against another edition

3.0

We read this one a chapter a night with a few nights off here and there. Again, it’s an old book, so the language needs some explaining to the younger crowd and there are some passages that I edited due to racist or questionable language. The basic story is about a cute family of two girls and a boy (all of whom go by typically male names) who live the high life in the city and must travel to the country and live “poor” when their father is wrongfully imprisoned. They soon take refuge from boredom at the local station (hence the title) and have a series of (mis)adventures in their new locale, making friends and charming everyone they meet. Naturally there is a happy ending, which ties many characters together.

pixieauthoress's review against another edition

4.0

Reread in Germany, July 2009.

I found that I did not enjoy this as much as I did The Treasure Seekers, which I read for the first time last June, but it was an enjoyable read. It made me want to watch the movie again, which was one of my favourites when I was a child. This book wasn't as witty as TTS, but there were several amusing lines. 8/10

ikableu's review against another edition

4.0

Finally, I finished this book! TBH, for the first few pages i feel that this book is a bit boring, and sometimes i’m guessing around at the accented words. But after halfway, i start to enjoy the book. The story itself is heartwarming. Three kind-hearted childrens that suddenly become poor, but they always eager to help their mom and other people.
For me, it’s an enjoyable book but maybe i’m not going to pick up another classic for some time