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    On the Blue Comet
    Unavailable
    On the Blue Comet
    Unavailable
    On the Blue Comet
    Audiobook6 hours

    On the Blue Comet

    Written by Rosemary Wells

    Narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Oscar Ogilvie is living with his dad in a house at the end of Lucifer Street, in Cairo, Illinois, when world events change his life forever. The great stock market crash has rippled across the country, and the bank takes over their home-along with all their cherished model trains. Oscar's dad is forced to head west in search of work, and Oscar must move in with his no-nonsense Aunt Carmen. Only a mysterious drifter who stops by each day for food after school helps alleviate Oscar's loneliness-until Oscar witnesses a crime so stunning that it catapults him into a miraculous, time-hopping train journey.

    Filled with suspense and peppered with witty encounters with Hollywood stars and other bigwigs of history, this captivating novel by Rosemary Wells resonates with imagination, humor, and the magic of a timeless adventure story.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateSep 28, 2010
    ISBN9781441889508
    Unavailable
    On the Blue Comet
    Author

    Rosemary Wells

    Rosemary Wells's career as an author and illustrator spans more than thirty years and 120 books, including Hand in Hand and Kit and Kaboodle. She has won numerous awards and has given readers such unforgettable characters as Max and Ruby, Noisy Nora, and Yoko. She lives in Greenwich, Connecticut.

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    Reviews for On the Blue Comet

    4/5

    40 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Well done, highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Eleven-year-old Oscar Ogilvie lives in Cairo, Illinois with his father. The two share a love of model trains, and spend evenings working on their elaborate set up in the basement. The stock market crash of 1929 does not affect them immediately, but ultimately it causes his father to lose his job, the house, and the model train collection. Oscar Senior heads to California to look for work while his son moves in with a straightlaced aunt. The only joy in young Oscar's life is the time he spends with Mr. Applegate, a former math teacher who is also drifting around looking for work. One day, Oscar is at the bank where Mr. Applegate has gotten a job as the night guard. The train set that the Ogilvies lost ended up decorating the bank lobby, and the two enjoy spending time watching it run. When two armed robbers break into the bank, Mr. Applegate yells at Oscar to jump. He jumps-- right onto the train set, where he magically finds himself in a full-sized station and hops the first train that comes. The train catapults him 10 years into the future, so when he is reunited with his father in California, it is 1941 and the 11 year old Oscar (in a 21-year-old body) is in danger of being arrested for draft-dodging. A little reminiscent of Edward Bloor's "London Calling," Wells' story has enough going on that it could easily become convoluted, but she manages to keep the story moving and the reader engaged throughout as Oscar hops multiple trains in an effort to get back to his correct time period. The resolution is a little too pat, but overall, this is a charming story of adventure and the bond between father and son. Beautiful illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline help immerse readers in the 1930's and 1940's.
    • 4/5
      What a fun ride! This story of a young boy during the depression and the model train set he shares with his father has magic, history, and adventure. Throughout the novel the main character, an 11 year old boy meets historical characters that are (cleverly) not quickly identified. While children reading the book may not pick up on the clues, it makes the book a delightful read-aloud as the adults will be pleasantly surprised by the supporting cast. As other reviewers have said, this book has a "Twilight Zone" feel to it, with an appealing main character and a heartfelt story.
    • 4/5
      Reason for Reading: I've read a few of the author's books and this time it was the historical fiction aspects along with the time travel that drew me to this book. Plus I do also have a thing for old trains.Oscar Ogilvie lives in the early 1930's. It is Christmas Eve, 1931 to be exact when the action starts to take place in the book. But a bit earlier than this we get to know Oscar and his dad who have a passion for model train collecting and have spend hours in their basement working with their layout. Oscar's dad doesn't do too badly with his job at John Deere and they have accumulated a nice set of Lionel trains. But the crash of '29 hits and eventually his dad loses his job, sells the house and the train set, goes to California to find work and leaves Oscar behind with his prim and proper spinster sister. Then on the evening in question, Oscar is visiting the nightwatchman at the bank, a friend, who lets him play with the train layout on display there, the one that used to be his. On that fateful night the bank is robbed and Oscar jumps for his life into the miniature train layout to find himself in the future where he works his way to join his father in California. Only Oscar is now 21 years old and the date is 1941 and he's been missing, presumed kidnapped all these years. As Oscar tries to get back home to 1931, he takes a side trip to 1926 where he is only 6 years old.This was a fun book. Oscar is a quick thinking character and an enjoyable one to know. Even though he gets himself into this mess to start with he is generally a nice boy with good intentions who prays Hail Marys when things become too intense for him to handle. Oscar is an average kid who loves his dad very much and on his travels he always befriends someone who helps him through each stage of his journey. While Oscar's main focus is to return home, he also is desperately trying to remember the details of the robbery as he has learnt in the future that a $10,000 reward was offered by the bank for the capture of the criminals.The time travel aspect is fantasy based and just happens when Oscar's need is so great, usually from fear, and it is never scrutinized or explained away. One must suspend reality to accept this part of the book and also the number of people he eventually tells his story to who believe his tale is unrealistic and must be taken at face value. The historical fiction side of the book is informative while being entertaining. Much is learnt about the stock market crash and how the depression affected the rich, poor and middle classes. The 1941 era imparts mostly information about the bombing of Pearl Harbour and the war with Japan and finally the 1926 episode is the shortest mainly focusing on the restricted lifestyle of a rich girl who would rather be playing baseball than wearing frilly dresses and playing with dolls.The illustrations are simply divine. Full colour paintings one would expect to find in a picture book, not your usual MG chapter book. So realistic and charming, they have a sense of Norman Rockwell to them. The book's not heavily illustrated, but there are enough so that just as you are feeling that it's about time for a picture one comes along. Many of them are two page spreads to boot!A good romp, with lots of excitement and adventure. Oscar meets many interesting people along the way and situations are always turning from humorous to fraught with tension. This is a good "boy book" with unique plot elements making it stand out from the usual fare being offered these days.
    • 5/5
      THIS BOOK IS THE BEST BOOK I'VE EVER READ! BEST!
    • 1/5
      I thought this a VERY irritating book. It started so well, with a finely crafted portrait of a bereaved father and son, withdrawing into a private world after a devastating loss. Then...

      SPOILERS!!

      The story veers into fantasy. The boy, Oscar, goes from being a self-sufficient boy who takes it upon himself to cook for a hungry stranger, to a helpless waif over whom the rest of the plot washes like ocean waves. The mechanism for the sudden ability to travel by toy train is poorly explained. Is it something the mysterious Mr. Applegate engineers? ( pun intended) Is it a magic word? Is it built in to the trains themselves, and triggered in a moment of great need? Maybe. But another character who manages this trick has neither the help of a mysterious stranger nor the a magic word nor the urgency of young Oscar.

      The author has littered the story with historical characters. Most readers in the target age group for this book have never heard of most of them, and so the little winky winky scene with Oscar encountering a golly-gee all-American young actor named Dutch will completely go over their heads. ("You're not a politician, are you?" I asked Dutch. "Not in a pig's ear!" said Dutch.)

      I couldn't even figure out a consistent political view, if the author intended one in a book hero-worshipping Ronald Reagan. All the fat cat pre-Depression Wall Street businessmen are greedy, but Wells also features a sneering, stuck-up teenage John F. Kennedy.



      The cloyingly sweet descriptions of Dutch made me roll my eyes. He was "clearly a young man of character" and "just having him on the train made me feel safe all over." The book is full of such snap judgements: Oscar instantly trusts Ronald Reagan based on a handshake; another character lets complete strangers into the mansion in her care because one of them "has such an honest face." Oscar instantly trusts a stranger at the door because he's clean-shaven and is carrying a thick book. Well, good, this all saves having to read any character development...

      Then there's the appearance of the mysterious Chinese lady, Miss Chow, who refers to herself in the third person and speaks in an astonishingly breathless, stereotyped way: "Miss Chow hears everything!" Thanks goodness she has a mysterious hypnotic stone that will let Oscar remember all the details of a robbery locked away in his memory! "Chinese method going back two thousand years!"

      The most annoying thing was what this book lacked. Our hero manages to travel forward and backward in time in his quest to be reunited with his father. He manages to change the personal history of a recently acquired friend. But seriously, it never occurs to him to try to stop the accident that killed his mother?

      1 person found this helpful