First published in the UK in 1995. The “Runaway Train” is one of the “Little Red Train” adventures. This is a book written by Benedict Blathwayt – a British award-winning illustrator and writer who lives in Somerset on the edge of Exmoor. (Read more about Benedict Blathwayt here.)
An exciting story of Duffy Driver trying to catch up with runaway train. The pictures show the story clearly, there’s a good sense of time and place. Even if you are not very good with English, you can easily make up the story based on the brilliant pictures. You can always ask a child to make a prediction about the pictures: where is this train going? what is going to happen next?
Topics touched in the book: steam train, transport, speed, mapping, geography, helicopter, lorry, physics.
Cross curricular application:
The book could be engaged in geography lesson, when demonstrating the world from the point of view of a bird, to explain how a map of a place can be drawn. Another lesson where the book can be useful is physics. Use the book to discuss the average speed of different transport.
Age: from 1 to 7, depending on the depth of discussion.
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