The Silver ArrowThe Silver Arrow

Kate and her younger brother Tom lead dull, uninteresting lives. Why can't Kate have thrilling adventures and save the world the way people do in books? Even her eleventh birthday is shaping up to be mundane that is, until her mysterious and highly irresponsible Uncle Herbert, whom she's never even met before, surprises her with the most unexpected, exhilarating, inappropriate birthday present of all time: a colossal steam locomotive called the Silver Arrow. Kate and Tom's parents want to send it right back where it came from. But Kate and Tom have other ideas, and so does the Silver Arrow, and soon they're off to distant lands along magical rail lines in the company of an assortment of exotic animals who, it turns out, can talk. With only curiosity, excitement, their own resourcefulness and the thrill of the unknown to guide them, Kate and Tom are on the adventure of a lifetime.