THE SILVER ARROW written by Lev Grossman is a spellbinding novel about a girl who gets an unusual gift from her Uncle Herbert for her 11th birthday-----a steam engine! Her mother thinks it is an entirely inappropriate gift and wants it taken away. Kate, angry with her mother’s decision, is sent to her room.
Kate and her brother Tom decide to take a closer look at the engine. They sneak outside and climb inside the cabin only to find that somehow the engine is gearing up for a trip. The tender is full of coal, white steam starts puffing, a gear shifts and the engine moves down the tracks into the woods behind their house. Onboard is a typing contraption that even prints out instructions as to how to operate the engine. Kate is finally getting the adventure she has been wanting.
Uncle Herbert adds cars to the train for sleeping, dining and reading before Kate and Tom start the adventure. Their mission involves taking wild animals such as weasels, foxes, a black bear, a fishing cat, large owls and a snake to their requested destinations whether it be Mozambique, Bhutan, a mangrove forest or the North Pole. The interesting and magical element is that these animals can talk!
Kate has marvelous conversations with the white bellied heron, stops a fight between the porcupine and the seagull and rescues a polar bear. The engine travels on ground, in the sky and under water and still gets back home in time for Kate’s 11th birthday dinner.
The Silver Arrow written by Lev Grossman is full of imagination, magic and moving thoughts about animals, humans and ecology. It will engage readers 8-12 years of age (Little Brown, 2020).
Activity Questions for The Silver Arrow
Kate is surprised when she hears the animals talk and wonders why they don’t talk more often. On page 46 the fox answers, “Frankly we don’t meet a lot of humans who are worth talking to.” Why would the fox say that? Go through the novel and make a list of the problems the animals say they have had with humans. Are these problems real today? What can we all do about solving them?
The porcupine solves many of the problems that come up between the animals on board by threatening the use of his quills. Even the wild boar that tries to bully his way onboard without a ticket backs away when the porcupine helps Kate with the threat of his quills. Porcupines are usually not featured in many novels. Go online and gather pictures and information about their shape, habitat and their quills. Make a sketch of a porcupine with colored pencils. Give your porcupine a name based on your research or the porcupine’s actions in this story. Have fun!
Review the list of train cars that Kate and Tom want to add to the Silver Arrow from dinning cars to a Library car. What types of cars would you suggest if you were going on this adventure? Why?
