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Book Review By Michael JR Jose
The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit

This is a story of three children, Roberta, Phyllis, and Peter, who live in a respectable suburban villa with a wonderful mother and father and a cook and servants, until one day great disgrace and poverty befalls them. Father is taken away to prison (but they do not know this at first), and they have to move to a poor cottage in the country near a railway line. Mother writes stories to earn what little they live on and they get used to being poor and have to learn not to steal coal from the railway station, even if they have so little to keep warm by. Sometimes they argue and have crises, as one does, but in time they make many new friends, and amusing adventures aplenty happen near the railway and the canal. They develop the habit of waving to the train as it goes past and sometimes the people in the coaches wave back. Their friendly habits makes them one special friend in particular, who although he mostly just goes by in the train, eventually gets to know them, and helps them out in various ways. And somehow all the good things that they do add up together and end up coming back to them, and there is happy ending to it all.


Plot & Themes
Tone of book? - upbeat
Time/era of story - 1900-1920's
Poverty, surviving Yes
Kind of living: - general poverty story
Is this an adult or child's book? - Age 7-10

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status:
Age: - a kid
Ethnicity/Nationality

Main Adversary
Identity: - none

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 4 ()
Europe Yes
European country: - England/UK
Misc setting

Writing Style
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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