Hardie Grant Publishing
September 2026
9781761213953
$24.99
Unless you were under a rock or incapacitated in some way, you could not have missed the sensation that was The Truck Cat. What a hugely popular choice it was for NSS as well. Now from that same great pairing is this absolutely beautiful book that allows children to explore changes in life and how to accommodate those.
Scout and Pop love their weekly train trips watching the world go past but when Pop goes into residential care, it seems their train journeys will be at an end. Pop doesn’t really mind but Scout most certainly does so she, with all the ingenuity of a small person on a mission, creates a train inside the facility.
They beep their tickets, they ride past places they have loved. The places that sing of happy memories for them both whether it’s baby Scout meeting Pop for the first time, or Pop’s first horse. And it doesn’t take too long at all before other residents are getting their tickets ready and joining the journey each week.
It’s gentle and beautiful and even Smalls will understand the layers beneath the relatively simple text. As usual Danny’s illustrations are fabulous and I love the gatefold pages to give the illusion of the length of the train and its journey, as will the readers.
Keeping memories alive is so very important especially for our special people and this one is just a lovely experience for all readers from around Prep upwards. How fantastic would it be to have them ‘fill’ their train with passengers and memories? Perhaps it could be part of a Grandparents’ Day to do so? It’s a sweet clickety-clack 5🚆🚆🚆🚆🚆rating for this one.
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