Elem. – Flying Scotsman and the Best Birthday Ever

Morpurgo, Michael. Flying Scotsman and the Best Birthday Ever. Illustrated by Michael Foreman. Thames & Hudson, 2022. Unpaged. $17.95. 978-0-500-65294-7. Grades 2-5. 

A fictional girl shares memories of her father as driver of the Flying Scotsman, and her love of steam locomotives throughout her career and life. The Flying Scotsman, a passenger locomotive between London and Edinburgh, was built in 1923 and served proudly with crew for many years in the United Kingdom, later making visits to the United States, Canada, and Australia, giving it the honor of being the first steam locomotive to circumnavigate the globe. The girl in this story shares her pride in watching her father prepare the engine and driving the Flying Scotsman, waving and calling to his daughter. She wants to go with him, in fact, “to shovel the coal, to pull the whistle, to help him drive.” Her teacher tells her girls can’t, and her mother tells her not yet, but the little girl leaves a note and secretly follows her father to the train for her own secret ride. But the stowaway is found, and it is not until later that her father is granted tickets for his wife and daughter to ride in the luxury of First Class on Flying Scotsman. Her memories of that ride are vivid. Being dressed in their finest, having a magnificent breakfast and lunch in the dining car, seeing beautiful sights from the windows of their train car, and arriving in Edinburgh to cheers and a band, for the Flying Scotsman had set a world record for speed! The girl later has a career with the train, being honored to stand on the footplate, where her dad once had been. The book ends with facts about the steam locomotive and its travel years as well as its place now giving special passenger tours in the U.K. 

THOUGHTS: Share this with those with a love for trains and their history or anyone with wanderer’s lust for new sights. This book could easily spark a love for trains, history and travel.

Picture Book          Melissa Scott, Shenango Area SD