Epic Adventures: Explore the World in 12 Amazing Train Journeys

by Sam Sedgman

Cross scorching deserts on the California Zephyr, t ake in the safari sights of Southern Africa, wrap up warm in the Arctic Circle, and taste tea in India whilst on a toy train―there's a whole world to discover when traveling by train!

So climb on board and travel across six continents, 34 countries, and numerous cities via 12 of the world's most amazing train journeys. Adventures on Trains author and British Book Award 2021 winner Sam Sedgman brings to life the world’s most epic railroads, including the Orient Express (Paris to Istanbul), the first Transcontinental Railroad (Chicago to San Francisco), and the Rejuvenation Express (Beijing to Hong Kong). Each locomotive adventure reveals the rich history, culture, landscape, and wildlife of the countries traveled.

Detailed, colorful illustrations by Sam Brewster bring the facts and journeys to life. Epic Adventures will appeal to culture-, travel-, locomotive-fans of all ages.

Genres: Nonfiction, Childrens, History

64 pages, Hardcover

Published March 8, 2022

Reviews

[Barbara Band · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by Sam Sedgman, author of the Adventures on Trains series, and illustrated by Sam Brewster, this is a non-fiction book detailing train journeys across the world. There are 12 routes to explore, each one with a double-spread illustrated map that plots the train's route, highlights points of interest along the way and interesting facts about the various countries it passes through. Each journey also has another aspect to it, explored on another illustrated double-page spread and these encompass building tunnels, African animals, Japanese customs, engineering, the Arctic Circle, the history of railways and so much more. I love this book; it's a mix of travel, adventure and fascinating facts that will appeal to so many. It's aimed at MG (8-12 years) but I can see many adults whiling away a few hours with it planning their next trip ...

[EM WATSON · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Big thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Children's Books for letting us do a review of this wonderful book.

Sam Sedgman was just the person to author such an incredibly informative yet fun book looking at twelve of the worlds greatest, epic train journeys.
The delightful illustrations by the talented Sam Brewster, contain a host of information. And it's not just about the trains and tracks, but also the destinations, creatures, inhabitants, food, plants and history. Train lover or not, this really is a treasure trove in children's non-fiction that surely will find a place in every adventuresome child's heart and grace a shelf in every home, school, and library.
Any reader of the 'Adventures on Trains' series penned by Sam and MG Leonard will surely be wanting this as the perfect companion for the adventures past, and those to come. I know I do, and I am way over school age!
Aimed at the 7 to 11 age group, I am sure this will also be well received by younger readers as something their parents and teachers can read to and with them, and share the awe, wonder and diversity of the twelve journeys that span across the globe.

[Sifa Poulton · Rating 5 out of 5]

From one of the authors of the MG mystery series, Adventures on Trains , comes this non-fiction guide to twelve amazing train journeys around the world. Some of the train trips are features in the series (the California Zephyr, the Arctic Sleeper, and several lines in Africa) but others were not featured (but I'd love to see a novel on the Shinkansen from the duo!)

The book is such a fun look at some of the world's most interesting railways. There's a double page spread with each line, filled with facts, and then another double page on some feature of the land the train passes through, or it's history. There's the spies linked to the Orient Express or the natural landscape of Canada. I loved the mix of trains, environment, and history involved. There are also spreads on the history of trains and strange stations. It's a beautiful, fully illustrated in colour (by Sam Brewster) overview of railways around the world.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using trains as a starting point, this is more or less a geography book – and a bold and colourful one at that. The first journey is the Channel Tunnel, leaving London for Amsterdam, and this inspires two double-page spreads, one showing the route, and another a cutaway of the tunnels. Both are high on learning by bullet point, as the text is skewed towards the trivia and caption-length bites of it at a time. Bullet trains are here, too, as after a diversion to southern Africa it's the Shinkansen that gets attention. All the time there are the data about the trains and journeys, and facts about the places they run through, although people here for the STEM subjects are appeased by asides about top engineering projects, railway history and so on. But this should definitely not be bought just for the STEM shelves in the school library – we even cover the history of the Soviet Union when looking at the Trans-Siberian Railway, so humanities are definitely of concern too. There is even the good old camel train. Either way, just because the book might be awkwardly unclassifiable, nothing makes it a bad one.

[Roberta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of the Adventures on Trains series, so when I saw Epic Adventures, it was an obvious choice.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Each epic train journey covers two double page spreads. This first shows the route, and the second shows some of the culture of the area travelled through. There are also a few pages just about trains. All pages are liberally sprinkled with interesting facts. A variety of topics are covered, the nature and scenery, the local culture, the technology. I particularly liked the fact that the exploitative nature behind the building of many of these train lines was not brushed over, though it wasn’t by any means shoved in your face. Sam Sedgman has done an excellent job of picking out great facts, that are full of interest.

The illustrations absolutely bring this book to life. Sam Brewster has done a brilliant job with his colourful and appealing artwork.

Overall, this book is fun and informative, and is simply bursting with fun facts and lively illustrations. I recommend it to anyone who likes trains, or the Adventures on Trains series, or both. It’s delightful.

I was given a free copy of this book, my opinions are my own.

[Mehsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gelezen in het NL, niet echt wakker genoeg om de NL versie toe te voegen.
Een mooi boek over verschillende reizen, sommige echt razend interessant en sommige best saai. Soms iets téveel informatie over dingen die niet echt bij de treinreis pasten. Maar wel echt mooie illustraties en ik kon me vaak zo voorstellen dat ik met de trein mee aan het reizen was. Ik kende al een aantal van de reizen maar ook weer wat nieuwe gevonden. Het lijkt met tof om deze reizen echt te doen... al moet ik dan wel wat medicijnen nemen. Haha. Treinreizen lukt wel voor een korte afstand, maar langer en ik word misselijk.
Ik was wel verward (en mijn man ook trouwens). De Kanaaltunnel is 50km, maar volgens het boek ontmoeten de Franse en Engelse kant elkaar in het midden en hadden ze elk 14 km gegraven.. maar dat is 28 km in totaal... niet 50?

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful addition to Sam Sedgman and M.G. Leonard's Adventures On Train's middle grade novels. This fascinating journey that takes in 12 train journeys from around the world, looks not just at the particular details of the trains, their routes and statistics, but also looks at the cultures and environments they pass through. I found many of the details really interesting and many were genuinely fun facts. It's enhanced by the beautiful illustrations by Sam Brewster and good use of the page spreads themselves. A must for any child interested in trains, but also a lovely book for anyone to dip into and enjoy.
My thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan children's books for the ARC in return for an honest review.

[Stephanie Whyte · Rating 5 out of 5]

My train mad 7 year old son was delighted to read an advanced digital copy of this book with me. We both enjoyed reading all the information in the book, information that covered the train journeys themselves along with interesting facts about places the trains pass through on their journey. The illustrations in this book are lovely with so many little details that you don't necessarily notice the first time you look at them.

I highly recommend this book to any child who has a love of trains. My son has asked if we can purchase a physical copy of this book so he can look at it himself.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book.

[Dreximgirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a fantastic book, the journeys were fascinating, the illustrations beautiful and the facts were really interesting. It definitely made me want to go on more train journeys in my future and possibly to places I hadn't really considered much before. Sam has such a wonderful balance of facts told in a storytelling type of way, his enthusiasm came through well and infectious.

Solid 5 stars.

[Nichola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fanatastic non fiction books about different epic train adventures across the world. Packed full of information and description about the different trains and aspects of their journeys, including histort. Makes you want to go on a train ride across countries. I like that one of the messages behind this book is that historically some of the railways were built in countries and places that took over lands or oppressed people and that should not be forgotten.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to flick through with various facts about the trains and the places they passed through scattered over the pages. But if you’re serious about trains, this book might seem a little lightweight for you; who wants to read about African animals instead of the Rovos Rail for instance? Plus the layout where random facts on trains, flora, fauna, festivals etc were scattered everywhere just made this really hard to read. Better for the casual reader.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book that could have been better with more conscientious copy editing and fact checking, e.g. the paragraph just on page 40 just above the "The Ghan Stats" is a word mess; page 30 states the Colorado River runs through the Grand Canyon in NEVADA. May it was meant to read "to Nevada" but it then makes me question the factual nature of the text for places I am unfamiliar with.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable but my fault for buying on kindle as quite difficult to read.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book with tons of fascinating information and amazing illustrations. The pages are so vibrant and beautiful.

[Katarina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inspirations och illustrationsrik. Men verkar ha en del faktafel/ fått infon fel.

[LudmilaM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Famous train routes all over the world with interesting fact from history, geography and nature thrown in the bag.