Stop The Train

By Geraldine McCaughrean

Review by Karthik

The opening paragraph grabs the reader’s attention.

·Put reader right into the action

·Make reader imagine the unimaginable (ie. It’s not everyday that a 13 year old girl is accused of murder…)

·Don’t start with “the book I read was…” That’s way too BORING! Hook us into the plot!

You have just moved into the sun baked land of Florence. It is bare, dry, and is just a wide plain. You and a few others are the first and only people in this land.

Now a person carrying a carpetbag comes up to many people in their small houses he would give them 50 bucks for their land for the railroad company owned by his father. After nobody gave in after many days, his dad sent a message saying “There will not be a Florence Station on the Red Rock Railroad ...From here on out the trains won’t be stopping at Florence. Ever!”

The title and author are worked in naturally

·Don’t say, “My book was The Giver” when you can say, “Jonas, a twelve year old boy and the main character of Lois Lowry’s Newbery Award winning novel The Giver, must make decisions that impact his entire society.”

The Florence community was running out of resources because the trains wouldn’t stop here, in this award winning book, Stop the Train, by Geraldine McCaughrean. They had to do something fast.

The overall idea and plot are discussed, without giving away the ending

·Keep it short and sweet, even if it’s a long book

·Just give the reader the gist of the book. Be clear, make sense, don’t give away the ending

Florence a great town is being belittled because the train is not stopping there, and this is in early stage in the time line, so that was the only mode of transportation except horse and by foot. The story is about the people of Florence and their many attempts to stop the train. (now does the title make sense?) They even decorate the town and build a water tower to make the passengers encourage the engineer to stop at Florence. All the people of Florence have different jobs that all help to stop the train.

Describe one exciting incident in detail

·Again, don’t give away the ending

·Be clear enough so that someone who HAS NOT read the book can follow

One exiting event was when the train was finally stopped. The people of Florence were trying to stop the train all along because it carried people and resources they needed. A few people from Florence went on the train and took over the engineer’s job and stopped the train at Florence. Most of the people inside got off and looked around. Of course this was all planned, so everything was decorated and polished. Some of the children acted as tour guides, the rest pretended to be in school with their teacher. Most of the people thought this was a nice town. Later that day, in the newspaper of Florence (that the people on the train got) had a section that talked about if they liked their visit and to get the train to stop in Florence permanently. In reply, Red Rock said that the trains would never stop at Florence. (It was almost like the ending, but not quite.)

End the review with your opinion and recommendation

·Who might like this type of book? (Sports fans? People that love to laugh? History buffs? Late night readers that like to be freaked out?

·What did you think? Is it worth reading? If it won an award, is it worth the hype?

I would recommend this book to fans of Harry Potter books and Series Of Unfortunate Events books. It has a lot of suspense.

I think it was a great book. It did win award and is worth reading. If you like stories that keep getting better and better, this is a book for you. It follows the elements of literature and is well thought out. The author has written many books including: The Kite Rider, A Pack Of Lies, The Pirates Son, Gold Dust, and many more!