The Silver Arrow

Gr 5-8–Kate is about to turn 11, and she doesn’t expect anything interesting to happen. Longing for adventure, she sends a note to her Uncle Herbert, whom she’s never met, asking him to send her a birthday present. He shows up with one of the more interesting gifts anyone could imagine: a full-size steam train with talking animals as passengers. Against their parents’ wishes, Kate and her younger brother Tom set off on extraordinary journey around the world, ferrying their extraordinary passengers to their destinations. Information about climate change, invasive species, and other human effects on animal life are woven throughout. Though veteran reader Simon Vance may seem a strange choice to voice a book whose point-of-view character is a young girl, his narrative skills carry listeners along, immersing them in Kate’s world.