Bobbie, Peter, and Phyllis have had a lovely life as a middle class family in the early 1900s. Father works but spends time with them in the evenings, mother is always around and making up stories and playing with them, and there are servants that attend to the mundane tasks. Until one evening some men come and father goes away with them and the next day they have to pack up and move away from the city. Now there are no servants and mother tells them that they are poor and she must write and hope to sell her stories to keep them fed and there are many days where there is just toast and jam to eat. Now the children don't go to school and must find ways to amuse themselves so they explore this new town of their and are constantly drawn to the Railway which provides many adventures and surprises along the way.
Definitely a book from another era so I tried to read it with that in mind and leave the bulk of my modern day thinking out of it. The children wandering all over the town so much by themselves were fine and I do think the bits about the general kindness of the people there was appropriate given the time but having the old gentleman from the train solve all the problems and just happen to be the grandfather of the boy they rescue....a bit too deus ex machina for my tastes but I know that was common enough in these types of tales at the time. In all, a sweet story of a bygone age.
Page count: 156p/20,347p ytd/329,044p lifetime
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