Oi! Get Off Our Train

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John Burningham collaborated with Ian Fleming on Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, designing the model of the famous car. Get off our Train (Jonathan Cape, 1989) and various books for adults England (Jonathan Cape, 1992); France (Jonathan Cape, 1998); The Time of Your Life (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2002) and When We Were Young (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2004). With a train full of animals, the journey continues until the boy realises that he has to get home for, as he says, 'I have to get to school in the morning.

Read all A little boy sets off on a round-the-world night train to dreamland with only his toy dog for company.

But the animals each give a very good reason for wanting to be on the train, for instance the first of them, an elephant, says, 'Someone is coming to cut off my tusks, and soon there will be none of us left. From 1956-1959, he studied at the Central School of Art, after which he designed posters for London Transport and the British Transport Commission. She demands it be read to her whenever it is brought round and I even brought a copy for my friends little girls, who now tell me repeatedly to 'OI! Collect some small cardboard boxes and tubes and stick them together with glue or tape to make a toy train together. The story is making statements about the plight of endangered animals and the treatment, pollution of the environment (Planet Earth), so loads of opportunities to link in with other topics.

They explain that their homes are being destroyed by people, so they can no longer live there so the boy and the dog let them ride along until they must go home. This book was very useful in showing how inclusion of those different to yourself can allow you to experience different things and diversify your own knowledge.This is effective as not an in your face 'humans are terrible' but could allow a child to realise this is not right - animals don't deserve to be treated that way and understand ways in which this could be improved. The core theme is definitely about animals and the destruction of habitats though, so it would lend itself to either a discussion or Science topic about this matter.

He visits many different habitats where endangered animals beg a lift on the train to escape their impending extinction, brought about by the thoughtlessness and greed of those who misuse the environment. Give your child a long piece of paper and crayons to draw a picture of the train with all the animals. I love the way the boy and his pyjama dog go travelling on their train at night - this is not a new theme in children's books, but this doesn't matter when the story is done well.e. Mr Gumpy's Outing, Courtney, or Avocado Baby) or his occasional projects for texts not his own ( The Wind in the Willows, the now sadly out of print Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). Ties in very well to a lot of geography issues, human destruction of our planet and the animals that live within it. As a small boy drifts off to sleep he dreams that he is taking a journey around the world in his model train. On his travels he encounters several animals who want to join the train, and have very strong reasons for doing so. Parents might like to read through this first, some children might find the descriptions of what is happening to these endangered animals too much and I think children can be burdened too much with the environmental disasters that are adults doing but I'm glad to see a children's book with a kind environmental message.