Member Reviews
A train run by trolls lands in a living room where a girl named Suzy Smith, becomes part of a mission to deliver one of the packages. Suzy goes on an amazing adventure with a lot of action. A wonderful book that will take children into a fantasy world.
This is a great fantasy book for middle grade readers. It is fast paced and has many characters.. It starts out quick and just keeps going.
Solid world-building and a fun premise keep this fantasy on its toes and chugging along nicely. The plot is complicated with many side characters and side stories, but fantasy fans will enjoy the ride. Many may, however, never figure out how say the villain's name. Lady Crup ... Cresp ... Crapula? If they never try to talk about the book, they'll be just fine!
Thank you so much to Macmillan’s Children’s & Netgalley for The eARC of this book!
When Suzy hops a ride on the Impossible Postal Express, she ends up taking a trip she could’ve never imagined. I loved Suzy— she uses her wits and physics, to help save her friends in some sticky situations.
I’m excited to read this to my boys, I think they will love the setting and the suspense.
Suzy loves mathematics and physics - order, certainty, rules. So when a train appears in her living room she is a bit freaked out. It gets worse when the trolls who run the postal train talk out wiping her memories. So, she hops the train to find out more about it. This train to Impossible Places leads Suzy on an adventure and a mission to save the Union. Along the way she meets Frederick, the boy in the snow-globe who has vital information. Can she prevent an evil takeover?
Fantasy is not really my favorite. I had a bit of a struggle getting into this and then it wrapped up rather quickly and neatly.
I can often be somewhat weary of middlegrade novels. Their target audience are those who, most typically, wont be bothered by a lot of things that older readers might. Many of them are fairly simple, with good reason, and thus I usually read them expecting to like but not love the book. It is for this fact that I found myself utterly and completely blown away by <i>The Train to Impossible Places</i> by P. G. Bell.
When a mysterious train and a staff of trolls appear in her living room, Suzy Smith doesn’t quite know what to make of them. They and their train seem to go against all the rules of physics, a subject at which she excels and one she deeply loves, from the very moment they arrive. Magic and fuzzics, they say, and are quick to determine that scrambling her memories is truly the best way to go when it comes to dealing with the fact that she wasn’t supposed to see them in the first place. Not one to have her brain messed with, Suzy soon finds herself stowing away aboard the Impossible Train and entering a world of grand adventure, dastardly plots, and villains who aren’t always quite as obvious as they seem.
I <i>loved</i> this novel. From the witty and wonderful characters to the fantastic storytelling, Bell has woven a story that is impressively creative and exceedingly captivating. From the moment I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down. I fell in love with the characters, with the impossible places themselves, and especially with the plot which was surprising and predictable in all of the best ways. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book that was this perfectly crafted and I cannot wait to share it with my friends and especially my young cousin or perhaps some of my students for whom this book would be perfect.
Truly, books do not get much better than <i>The Train to Impossible Places</i> and I’m truly so grateful that I was able to find and read it.
<i>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. </i>
The Train to Impossible Places: A Cursed Delivery by P.G. Bell is an exciting, imaginative, wild ride of a story that never lets up for a moment. This was a whimsical and fun middle grade read full of interesting characters and fantastic places. There is also a good adventure with some science.
Suzy and her friends visit are really the stars of this book. The plot is fast paced and you are always amazed with the places that the train visits. I loved the Troll bridge and the pirate shipwreck. As I mentioned before there are some physics involved and gravity is not always working the way you would expect. The trolls were also great inventors and the glimpse we get of what they are capable of is really interesting. The story has some nice plot twists that I think will keep kids invested in the story and characters.
Great story for kids who love adventure and science.
I received this e-ARC from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I don't know why I didn't like this book more than I did. I just can't quite put my finger on it. It was fine, and some parts were really exciting. I think maybe it took too long to get from Point A to Point B? I do think middle grade fantasy readers will like it.
Imagine a train trolls run with a bear that fills the boiler. Now imagine that running through your living room...
Feiwel and Friends and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It will be published October 2nd.
Her parents were asleep on the couch, so she went up to bed by herself. Then she hears what sounds like a burglar but it's not...
She chats with the engineer, sees the train, and jumps on as a stowaway as it goes by. She has no idea what kind of adventure she will have.
She's pressed into postal service delivery and her very first delivery is to a wicked woman who has a boy stuck in a snowglobe. She steals him and runs but the woman follows her trying to recover him. The boy in the snowglobe lies to her. In fact, quite a few people lie in this story...
This is a grand adventure with lots of danger and an underlying plot that is not obvious until the end. It was a very good read with lots of imagination. I enjoyed it.
This fantasy and adventure story takes place on a magical train that travels through Suzy's living room - she soon finds herself the Deputy Post Master and delivering an important package to the evil Lady Crepuscula. Suzy just doesn't deliver packages, but finds herself helping some unexpected heroes save an entire kingdom!
I loved the characters and the beautiful train that can travel in ways you can only imagine. And although the train isn't necessarily a character, this setting is essential to the story and the author does an amazing job of creating an environment that I could so clearly picture in my mind.
This was a whimsical and fun middle grade read full of interesting characters and fantastic places. There is also a good adventure with some science thrown in. This is not a character driven story, even though there are a lot of them, but there are a few that I would like to talk about.
Suzy is a delightful young lady full of heart and courage. She loves physics and sometimes has to use her knowledge of it to get her and her friends out of tight places. When she wakes up and finds a train and a troll in her hallway, she is quickly caught up into an adventure of a lifetime. She does question her decisions along the way though. But she makes friends with the trolls and the bear on the train and will do anything to protect them. She is pretty smart and plucky as well, willing to stand up to those who are being mean or evil.
Wilmot is the troll Post Master who has the difficult job of delivering the mail to all of the impossible places. I liked him immediately, as did Suzy. He was kind and gentle, but also willing to stand up for himself and others. He was also brave and pretty clever, even if he doesn’t believe that for himself.
Lady Crepuscula is the evil witch of this tale, and she does live up to the name, although I suspect she is not as bad as people make her out to be. Meridian is another adult character that appears to be good, but in the end his motives and actions are not so great.
The plot and the Impossible places that Suzy and her friends visit are really the stars of this book. The plot is fast paced and you are always amazed with the places that the train visits. I loved the Troll bridge and the pirate shipwreck. As I mentioned before there are some physics involved and gravity is not always working the way you would expect. The trolls were also great inventors and the glimpse we get of what they are capable of is really interesting. The story has some nice plot twists that I think will keep kids invested in the story and characters.
A solid debut work and a great start to a series.
I was expecting something different, but still enjoyed the story. The description of the world was very detailed (a little too much for my liking). The mystery was good and I wanted to know what would happen next. Overall, this was a good read, but it wasn't an absolutely favorite of mine.
I read this with my 8 and 10 year old daughters, We all loved it. This book takes you on a magical journey.
This book is really fast-moving, imaginative and fun. A great magical adventure for middle grades readers.
A fun and imaginative read. Enough action to keep a student's interest. I think the kids at my school will enjoy this one.
A fast-paced, enchanting book that makes you believe in the impossible. With a story that grabs you right from the start, this is sure to appeal to boys, girls, reluctant readers...there's something in here for everyone. Highly recommend adding this to any library collection.
::SPOILERS AHEAD::
Loved it! Such an imaginative story! At times I felt like I was watching a Hayao Miyazaki movie, because the journey was so strange and random. Also the Lady Crepuscula scary and intriguing all at once. (I still say those were human soldiers that she turned to statues. Though we were never told.) I totally sympathized with Suzy; at times I wanted to smash Frederick myself. I think my favorite chapter was the underwater ghosts. My heart goes out to them, there has to be some way to save them.
I smell a sequel. I hope there's a sequel. I want to visit these characters again and see what new places the Impossible Postal Express delivers to next!