The Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman is a wonderful new addition to children's fiction. Grossman takes us back to the classic style and feel of children's literature akin to the Chronicles of Narnia, Roald Dahl, and a touch of Lemony Snicket. For her 11th birthday Kate has sent a desperate request to her estranged rich uncle to give her some sort of delightful present. She did not expect Uncle Herbert to show up with a steam engine named the Silver Arrow, let alone the adventures said train would take her and her brother Tom on. Full of talking animals for passengers, readers are introduced to many endangered (or close) animals as they embark to new places hoping to find peace from the invading humans. While the message of conservation is certainly a theme, it doesn't ring too heavy as to turn off readers. Simon Vance's reading is wonderfully done, especially as he takes on different accents for each animal that reflect not just its region of origin, but also its attributes as an animal. While other reviews seem to be marking The Silver Arrow as Middle Grade, I would argue it's not a true Middle Grade and should be targeted toward slightly younger readers (again think of your typical readers for Narnia, Dahl, Snicket, even L'Engle). Either way it was a swell ride and I'll look to see where the Silver Arrow takes Kate and Tom next.

I was looking forward to reading this book because I tend to love middle-grade adventure stories. They usually feel so carefree and magical to me. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel the same about The Silver Arrow, and I ended up being very disappointed.

This book sort of feels like a mix of The Polar Express and The Chronicles of Narnia, but not done well. It honestly felt very contrived and forced, which really hindered my enjoyment of it.

The story starts out with rich Uncle Herbert gifting his niece Kate with a train—a real, metal, life-size train. Although her parents were initially upset about this gift, Kate and her brother Tom set out alone together on an adventure on this train, which is called the Silver Arrow.

I thought the beginning was very slow and weird. Just the fact that the uncle got her a real train for her birthday that he put in her backyard (like, what?) and the parents were angry but were still like, “Okay have fun playing in it,” rubbed me the wrong way for some reason. The story just felt very forced to me at that point, like Lev Grossman had a cool idea about two young kids getting lost on a magical train adventure but didn’t know how to actually introduce the train into the story so he invented a rich uncle to just hand-deliver it to them. That was not believable at all, and my absolute least favorite thing about any fictional story is when the story is not believable within the boundaries of its own world, and I felt like this book suffered from that at the very beginning.

So Kate and Tom go on this adventure and meet all kinds of talking animals, who tell them all about themselves. The Silver Arrow feels like an ecological novel for kids. Lev Grossman tells us about different animals from around the world and explains details like the animal kingdom hierarchy and what happens if it gets out of balance, what animals eat, what their habitats are, what they like to do, why they migrate, and why humans need to help preserve them from going extinct.

This sounds like a cool concept, but honestly, the whole book felt very contrived to me, like Grossman’s hidden agenda was to indoctrinate children with the desire to make a good ecological impact on our planet. Now don’t get me wrong, I think it’s important to teach children (and adults) the importance of caring for animals and nature and protecting our planet, but I don’t like how that information was presented here. I felt like this whole concept took away from the actual plot of the book because every scene had to be paused so one animal could talk about their natural habitat or their predators or how human impact was harming them. It was very obvious, as an adult reader, what Grossman was trying to do here, and it put me off a lot.

I honestly just felt really bored with this story. It was very slow-moving for how short it was and it had me rolling my eyes at some of the scenes in it. It read very young for its intended audience of kids ages 8 to 12, and it felt pretty silly to me at times. This seemed like a kind of story someone tells their young kids before bed but not one that was ever supposed to be published. That sounds kind of harsh but there are so many similar stories out there that are much more interesting and well-written, ones that communicate the same messages in a more natural and engaging way. I honestly don’t think if Lev Grossman was already a best-selling author that this book would have been published at all.

Besides the aforementioned issues I had, I also thought that the writing was unimpressive and unenjoyable to read. Lev Grossman’s Magicians trilogy has been on my to-read list, but after reading this book, I honestly don’t know if I even want to read that series because the writing style in this book really got on my nerves and I suspect that what I didn’t like here will be present in his other works as well.

I listened to the audiobook for The Silver Arrow and I thought the narrator, Simon Vance, was alright. Good but not great. The way his voice sounds when he narrates almost reminded me of a knock-off Jim Dale narration because of his British accent and the inflections he used to tell the story, and some of the character voices sounded similar to me. The story takes place in the modern-day but his voice made me feel like it was a story of the past. I particularly didn’t like how he narrated the adults at the beginning when the train gets introduced because they sounded whiny and strange to me. Eventually, I did feel like the narration got better as the story progressed, and I would listen to more books narrated by Simon Vance in the future, but he’s not my favorite narrator.

The Silver Arrow has adventure, talking animals, magical trains, and lots of presumably factual ecological information. I would recommend this book for kids ages 5 to 8 who want an easygoing adventure on a magical train ride that will teach them real facts about all kinds of animals from around the world, as well as teach them how to be more eco-conscious.

What a fun little ride (pun fully intended) with a wonderful cast if characters!

This book caught my eye because of the author. Lev Grossman as you probably know is the author of the renowned The Magicians Trilogy. I wasn't sure what to expect from a children's book from him, but I can certainly say it didn't disappoint.

Right from the beginning I really enjoyed the main characters. Everyone seemed to have a personality all there own. Brother and Sister Kate and Tom bumped heads enough to be a believable couple but at the same time clearly loved each other. I like it when sibling stuff feels good like this in books, I feel like it's so easy to get wrong.

From the we get on The Silver Arrow and we meet a wonderful cast of anthropomorphic animals. They all feel like a funny, albeit real, caricature of their animal forms and I loved it.

I think my one minor gripe with the book was at times it felt like a bunch of shirt stories sort of thrown together and I wasn't sure where the story was going. I got a little lost on the way, although I still enjoyed the stories. By the end of it though I felt like I completely understood what he was doing, and to be fair, I don't think a kid reading this would care as it's just a bunch of fun!

The narration. Oh the wonderful narration! Simon Vance was absolutely and utterly brilliant! I have seen his name in a bunch of audiobooks that I'm interested in and I just hadn't heard anything by him before. Well now I'm slapping myself for not. He did some of the best voice work I've ever heard in this book and I will be keeping an eye out for more of his narrations. He nailed all the voices to perfection and his mellow normal narrator voice was sublime and soothing.

If you want something fun to read then you can't do much better than this book. It was a fun adventure to go on.

This a great gateway book for reluctant reader to get into the fantasy genre with good use of humour and fantasy quest type story line. The characters I feel to be a bit on the young side than the age of the character would indicate. Apart from that the character development with even the minor characters is fantastic with wonderful detail and unique. The tackling of climate change and biodiversity is done in a smooth, positive and shocking way which gets the readers thinking of their place in the world.

Lev Grossman's humour comes through and like animated movies is aimed at a wide range in age groups. Being librarian from secondary school I love The Silver Arrow's thoughts on Learning which I found rang so true and the way it was delivered nearly made me drive onto the school oval than turn into the car park. That is one of the best highlights is that Lev Grossman has worked into this novel a lot of life lessons and would make an ideal English text for year 7's to study in Australia.

The chose of narrator Simon Vance was interesting given the main is female. Normally female characters have female narrators but the choice of a male narrator doesn't take from the story but I found that it added to it and I was easily lost in the story by just listening to Simon's voice.

I received a much-appreciated audio-galley of this from Hachette Audio and NetGalley. I am a huge fan of middle-grade fiction. The title and description for The Silver Arrow instantly appealed to me because I love portal fantasy and because I’ve always wanted to run a train, and end up somewhere magical. I also was very excited to see Simon Vance narrating, as he does amazing work on several other books that I love.

This is a book about Kate, a young girl who’s bored and wants adventure. She writes a letter to her mysterious Uncle Herbert, and on her birthday, he arrives with an amazing present for her. A train. Due to a combination of circumstances, Kate and her little brother Tom, end up away on the train, set for adventure and ready to save the world.

The premise of this book is fantastic, and reminds me of two of my favorite books of all time: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe; and The Phantom Tollbooth. There are talking animals, a fascinating train, and a hint of adventure.

Unfortunately, it was just a hint. The writing of this story is beautiful and evocative, and the parts concerning the train and the outside world have a VERY strong sense of place. The descriptions are lush, and it’s very easy to picture these animals and places in your mind. But nothing happens. It’s a slow to start story and it stays very slow. I listened to the audiobook in two sittings (and Simon Vance is an AMAZING narrator for this book) and it was diffficult to want to carry on at several points.

Kate and her brother Tom seemed to mevto have no actual growth in this story. Tom, in particular, is MIA for most of it, and is conveniently thought of when a tough decision needs to be made, and ingenuity is needed. Apart from that, he seems not to matter much. As for Kate, she is a very narrow character. She is a certain way at the beginning, and though she talks a lot about taking more responsibility, she doesn’t ever seem to take any care. The animals interact with her, but far more with each other. Towards the ending of the story, Kate says and does things that are in no way believable, based on what we’ve seen of her throughout the book. There are also several instances where the novel seems to remember that it’s from the POV of an 11 year old, and so it throws in video game speech and some text lingo to make it feel modern.

This is billed as a fantasy, but it several times seemed to try to also be literary fiction and environmentalist nonfiction. And this leads me to my real issue with the book. Throughout, we are led to believe that we are in one place, a place outside time, a fantasy place, only to realize (in Chapter 20 of a 26 chapter book), that there is a Message in all of this, and that Steps Must Be Taken, and that Humans Are Responsible. I found the last six chapters of this audiobook to be heavy handed in a way that I wouldn’t allow my children to read. There are problems caused, yes, but this book leads the reader, especially if they are an HSP, or impressionable, to believe that everything is their fault. I don’t like preachy books, and I don’t know that kids would either. There are ways to teach and to share ideas without throwing it in literally in the last 40 minutes of the audio, and beating the reader over the head with it.

As I say, the writing was beautiful and evocative. The descriptions are fantastic. There just wasn’t much more substance to it than that. The most likable characters in the story were the train and the animals. In short, there was a lot of potential but it ended up becoming entangled in heavy handed messages, and tried to be realism, nonfiction, editorial, and fantasy all at once.

The Silver Arrow is the latest release from Lev Grossman. Most will be familiar with the critic-turned-author from his series The Magicians. While The Magicians series was decidedly adult, this time around Grossman takes a crack at some middle-grade magic. I received a copy of the audiobook version of The Silver Arrow through NetGalley, but I’d had it on my wishlist already. I enjoyed The Magicians a lot and was curious to see how Grossman would handle a new challenge. The audiobook is narrated by one of the stars of the field in Simon Vance.

The Silver Arrow is stuffed cover to cover with some of the most classic tropes of children’s fantasy. There’s mysterious relatives, magic trains, talking animals, and more. Despite all this, the book never feels contrived or boring. I found The Silver Arrow to be quite a lot of fun. The adventures of Kate and Tom feel whimsical and appropriately childlike. I don’t mean childlike as a conveyance of simplicity, but just an acknowledgment that children care about different things than adults. Grossman captures that tendency children have to be imaginative and always question why the world operates in the way it does quite effectively.

Grossman pairs the adventure and whimsy with some moral lessons. What would a middle-grade book be, after all, without children learning about the world. In The Silver Arrow, Grossman uses the interaction with talking animals as an opportunity to talk about the environmental impact that humans have on the places they live. It doesn’t feel too forced and never distracts from the narrative or the fun. It’s also just a good message for children to learn.

Aside from the writing, Vance’s narration is fantastic. I enjoy British narrators. For whatever reason, it helps elevate the feeling of fantasy and adventure. Vance seems to have been a perfect selection for the story. He is adept at bringing to life the colorful cast of characters, from Kate and Tom to talking trains and herons. I would think it would do a great job of keeping the attention of the age-group that this book is targeting.

I had a good time with The Silver Arrow. It’s whimsical and adventurous. Despite it’s use of some familiar middle-grade fantasy tropes, it never feels too predictable or stale. Grossman seems to have proved that he can write fantasy for adults and children alike. It’s not always easy for a writer to pen a book for all-ages that appeals to more than just children, but I feel like The Silver Arrow accomplishes that feat.

The premise of a magical train may seem old fashioned at first, but Lev Grossman weaves such an interesting tale around it that even skeptical readers will fall in love the story in short order. The various animals he chooses lend their voice to a problem that few readers in the target age group have probably been introduced to. The intrigue and suspense that is built in throughout the book takes the reader on a roller coaster of emotions and moves the story along at a quick pace. This is a great, clean book that I will be recommending to grades 2-5.

If The Chronicles of Narnia was set in present day I think it would look something like The Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman.

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Thank you so much to @netgalley and @hachetteaudio for the ALC of The Silver Arrow. This is the new middle grade debut by the author that brought us the series The Magicians.

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Synopsis from the publisher: Kate and her younger brother Tom lead dull, uninteresting lives. And if their dull, uninteresting parents are anything to go by, they don’t have much to look forward to. Why can’t Kate have thrilling adventures and save the world the way people do in books? Even her 11th 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 … and who knows? They just might end up saving the world after all.

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This was a beautiful story narrated by Simon Vance, who did an amazing job not only bringing the main human characters to life, but also numerous animals. It was very easy to distinguish different characters from each other on the audiobook due to the wide range of Vance’s voices he assigned to each character. This was fun and fast paced adventure story, that also shines light on important environmental issues and the effect humans have on endangered animal populations. Overall it was a story that shows it is never too early to do all you can to make a difference, and the importance of not giving up.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Kate and her younger brother Tom have a wealthy uncle who up until now has stayed out of their lives but that all changes when he gifts Kate a magic steam train for her birthday. They are told not to go on the train but of course they do and that is when the magical journey begins. Both Kate and Tom begin their apprenticeship and learn that adult responsibility is real. Both kids are curious and strangely calm. Kate acts as Conductor to their unusual passenger list of talking animals and Tom assists as Engineer. Their jobs are made a bit easier thanks to the fact that the train talks and is forthcoming about what it needs. The story is beautifully told and as an added bonus you learn a bit about the animals along the way but what really makes it special is the narration. Simon Vance is the perfect choice. The story has connections to THE POLAR EXPRESS and the strange magic of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy. This book and audio will be out in September. This would be a fun family read or listen.

I thought that the story did not flow - I could not keep track of what was happening. Children will like the adventure aspect of the plot but I thought the ecological aspect was a bit forced with how the different animals migrated.

If it was taken as and adventure book it was good - who would not like a magical train with a library car and a sweet car.

First, I’d like to say that I am incredibly lucky. Not only was I approved to listen to this as an audiobook on Netgalley (I am so excited for these!!!) but I also got an ARC in the mail since BEA was cancelled this year. Sadly the art wasn’t in it yet, so I know I’ll have to get a copy for my nieces when it comes out and that way I can check out the art!

I have to say I need to read more middle grade novels as the ones I’ve recently read were excellent. I was enthralled by this sweet story. I loved the relationship that the siblings had, and how much information was packed into the pages.

Truly I think the best description I could give this was a mix between the Polar Express and living out a Ranger Rick magazine. Between learning about migration, endangered species, habitats, and invasive species this tale is wonderful for highlighting that adventures that can be found on our own earth.

I highly recommend this for any of your children, nieces, nephews, or even for us big kids who are looking for a touch of wild magic ourselves.

Thanks to NetGalley for the audio ARC, and BookExpoAmerica for the physical ARC in exchange for an honest review.

You can find The Silver Arrow here at Bookshop.org, which helps support independent bookshops.

What started out a grand promise of adventure in a train fantasy, where anything was possible, soon became a rather mundane experience of helping animals migrate. There was no antagonist to bring enough conflict into the story, There was a lot of self doubt and where the animals wanted to get on board and were not allowed, but nothing really to move it forward. I did find it interesting that our heroine could "taste" the soil once she became a tree, and that without a tongue. I did appreciate the reconciliation (sort of) between brother and sister.

This audiobook was received as an ARC from Hachette Audio in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook. Having not read the book, I learned a lot and took away more than reading the physical book. Plus, the voice of Simon Vance was very soothing and the background music is very catchy to listen. Having Kate to celebrate her 11th birthday and her parents are rarely home for anything. She writes a letter to her Uncle Herbert and she then receives a train and not just any train but a train called the Silver Arrow and the adventure they have been hoping for is here at last. A lot of our patrons will appreciate this book and love the concept behind the book.

We will consider adding this title to our JFiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

What would you do if you suddenly got a magic steam train for your birthday? Yes, a real one.

This story is a wonderful journey about what happens on a magical train once it starts going places you couldn't imagine. It's beautifully written, beautifully narrated (Simon Vance happens to be one of my favorite narrators) and lets you sit back and just enjoy. I'm seriously considering petitioning my country to translate it to my native language because I would love nothing more than to be able to read this to my kids.

To be recommended to anyone between the ages 5 and 100. Equally as good for kids as adults.

4,5 stars!

This book was provided for free from Netgally. Opinions are my own. I’m torn. On one hand the writing is beautiful and the narrator is great but the book feels a little heavy handed at time. For as preachy as it is there are no concrete steps or answers on how the kids can fix the mistakes of humans. This book reminds me of The Wild Robot, they have similar messages but with Browns book he was able to deliver the message in a more subtle way.

Full Review to be posted on GR.

First i would like to thank netgalley and the publishers for letting me experience this amazing book.

I must say that I, like most people approaching this book i was a bit cautious. Lev Grossman is known for his more adult fantasties so a lot of people might not trust him in MG.

While i was suspicious, the first chapter absolutely blew me away with his voice and character and magical narration.

The experience might have been enhanced because the narration of this book in the audio form is 5/5 all the way. The actor did a fantastic job with the characters voices and the world. There is literally no flaws.

About the story. It's very short book so i will try not to spoil it but everything starts with a girl who writes a letter for her uncle asking for a birthday present and receiving a train.

It's charming and magical and beautiful. The prose is just simple enough for anyone to follow and fall in love with it.

The characters are lively and real and the narrator did an awesome job with the voices.

The plot does get a bit heavy handed with its "morals" which is why its not a perfect 5 stars for me. But a lot of people dont Care about less nuances morals in their MG, and in that case you are sure to enjoy this from beginning to the end.

But even If you are not, If you are a fan of MG, you will adore and devoure The Silver Arrow, hopefully Hope for a sequel and ask why wasnt Lev Grossman writing mg all this time.

This was my first audiobook with NetGalley and I really enjoyed it! The narrator was great and the story was fast paced and engaging for young readers. I am definitely recommending this to my son who is a huge train fan. He loves any book that brings in a steam train to the story! It reminded my of the book "The Train to Impossible Places". Different story, obviously, but the same magical train feel that is really appealing. The reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 was that it got a little to preachy in the middle of the book. I understood where the author was going, but it was such an exciting, fantastical ride up until that point that it almost felt like the story came to a bit of a halt. I won't spoil it, but it did pick up again after that. Overall it was a great book and one that I would recommend to middle grade readers, train fan or not!

5 stars for audiobook. The narrator fit the story well and did a great job of enhancing the story.

3.5-4 for story. This was very interesting and not really what I was expecting. This is actually an environmentalist fable that sneaks in some lessons on endangered animals (the science itself was well done and a cool way to sneak in learning). It didn’t really feel like it was giving any ideas of how to help the animals, but I liked the mix of magic and science. The train was a fun magical setting and it went to a lot of fun locations both real and fantastical. The animals were well defined and fun characters, but Kate and especially Tom felt kind of thin and flat. So I can appreciate what the author was trying to do and as a whole it was a fun ride, it's just the message felt a little forced at the end.

Thank you Netgalley and Hachette audio for my gifted copy.

This is a middle grade novel about a magic train with talking animals.

This gave me a Harry Potter and Alice and Wonderland feel. I would like to read the actual book to my daughter. I feel this would be better as an actual book.

This has the potential to be a series.

This book was so much fun! A magical train, talking animals and a quest. What a great 11 birthday Kate is having!

Simon Vance's narration was fabulous as always!

I really enjoyed this one and I look forward to recommending I already have a couple kids in mind!