Kate wasn't expecting much when she wrote to her wealthy estranged uncle to ask for a birthday present. Certainly she wasn't expecting a colossal steam train called the Silver Arrow to arrive on her doorstep.

Despite parental misgivings, curiosity overwhelms Kate and her brother Tom and they climb aboard, only for the train's engine to roar into life. Soon they reach a train station where an assortment of strange and beautiful creatures are waiting with tickets in their mouths, and Kate and Tom begin to understand that their job will be to see them safely home – if they can.

Lev Grossman's first children's book is a journey you'll never forget: a rip-roaring adventure from desert plains to snow-covered mountains and everything in between. Packed with exciting creatures from the indignant porcupine to the lost polar bear and the adorable baby pangolin, The Silver Arrow is a classic story about saving our endangered animals and the places they live.