Hey! Get Off Our Train

by John Burningham

Book Overview

A boy goes to bed and dreams that he and his stuffed dog, now a railroad engineer, are speeding through the countryside playing games and picking up endangered animals.

An IRA Children's Choice
A Parents' Choice Award winner for illustration
A California Children's Book Award winner

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0517882043
• ISBN13: 9780517882047
• Release Date: July 1994
• Publisher: Dragonfly Books
• Length: 48 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 10.4" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 5 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Kindergarten to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

Horrible

This was a terrible book. I usually try not to buy books unless I know they are great ones, but my boys love trains and I took a chance. It was horrible- no plot, bad writing, made no sense and featured concepts I don’t need my little boys having to worry about. It was just so random every page made no sense and there was no story. Save your money and don’t buy this book.

HEY!!!!!

Our son knew by heart when to holler out, "Hey! Get off our train." I doubt that the message of extinction was even subliminally taken in. It was the joy of yelling its title over and over that made our son so happy.

My child's absolute hands-down favorite

My daughter loves this book. It captivates her imagination in a way no other book does. She asks for it by author, in fact. "John Burningham book, mommy?" I know that part of what she loves is the mild naughtiness of yelling out, "Hey! Get off my train!" Something she'd never be allowed to do in life. She knows the sequence of the weather and how they connect with what's going to be imagined for play by heart. Honestly, it's hard to convey what "foggy" is unless you happen to have some of it, and in upstate NY it's mostly foggy in the very early morning, or late night, but this book finally got the idea across. She never takes any notice of what people hunting or clear cutting or anything like that means, and I don't undertake to explain it. That part, for us, is just the reasonthe animals want to get on the train. Hitchcock had a word for this kind of plot mechanism: the MacGuffin. The thing everyone talks about that the reader doesn't care about, but gives everyone in the story the impetus be doing their thing. Anyways, one day we were on the Erie canal and we saw a crane, and my little 3 year old says to me, "Look mommy, a crane!" And I knew exactly where she recognized it from, because it's not as if cranes live in our backyard, so that says something about how wonderful the illustrations are. And I do absolutely love how the little boy conveys so much meaning with so few words. "Don't make too much noise with the shovel," is all he says, but instantly you're cast as a co-conspirator, sneaking out on a grand adventure to who knows where. I understand the other posters negative comments about the environmentalism nonsense and the rude mother, but it is a book meant for children, not parents, and after all, we are right there to talk about how out-of-it the mother is by the child's standards. Parents do talk to their children in that way. It serves as a reminder to me that sometimes I exasperate my child as much as she does me, and there can't be any harm in that.

My son still asks for this book

I checked this book out of the library for my 2 1/2-year old son for 2 weeks. He brought this book to me and asked me to read it to him ALL THE TIME. At the end of the 2 weeks, I renewed it for another 2 before returning it. While it may not be MY favorite children's book, it certainly is his, and shouldn't that be what matters to us moms? I am planning to give him this book for Christmas since he still asks for the "train book" everyday. If he hears me say "hey" he instantly squeals "Get off our train!" Obviously this book left a lasting impression on him and that's more important to me than whether the illustrations should or should have not won the Parents' Choice Award.

Fun Message: Animals Are Our Friends

HEY! GET OFF OUR TRAIN is a fun book for children. The book may appear somewhat dark to adults; but that is possibly because we're torn over how to treat endangered species. From the child's point of view, this is a book about a boy who takes a magical train ride with rare and unusual animals. It's fun; it's exciting! It shows a boy who makes room on his train for all of the animals who ask for his help. Because the train looks like his toy train, there is a hint that the train ride may exist only in his imagination. But, in the end, it seems that his nighttime train ride was real. This is great fun for children!