The author was born in Oman and moved to Australia when she was only six. Isla Fisher has a very successful career as an actor but, according to her publisher’s website, Fisher’s favourite role is as a mother. She has been making up bedtime stories for her three children since they were born and the books about Marge’s adventures grew from this. All the stories are very funny and make great bedtime reading.
Jemima, aged seven, realises how lucky she and her brother Jake, aged four, are to have Marge as their babysitter. Marge is nothing like a normal babysitter as she’s not much taller than Jemima with rainbow coloured hair – carefully concealed from the parents, of course – and she’s a Duchess, a member of the Royal Family. Spending time with Marge is great fun as she has a unique way of tackling the list of rules and things to be done that their mother has left for them. Like at Theo’s party when mother’s rule of one slice of cake each became nine slices each!
In the first story Marge has to cheer up Jake who’s miserable because his lose tooth won’t come out and he’s worried the Tooth Fairy won’t visit him. After a series of misadventures involving a pair of pliers, the dog, a remote controlled truck and a flooded bathroom, Jake has cheered up considerably.
The story in the title concerns a train ride to the zoo and Jemima describes Marge as looking ‘like a kind of pink flamingo but with shorter legs’ (page 550). Marge’s bizarre appearance and behaviour irritates and annoys Harold, an officious train conductor, especially when she wants to let Jake drive the train. Through subterfuge and disguise, Marge and the children achieve their goal by coming to the rescue when Harold is too frightened to solve the problem and rescue the train himself.
Each book has three separate tales with this book being the third in the Marge in Charge series and it is suitable for ages 7-9. The stories are terrific, well-paced and the children have very active roles, even if Marge is in charge. The language is just right for the age group but will also stretch them as new words are introduced. The lively black and white illustrations by Eglantine Ceulemans bring even more life to the stories and I recommend you check out the Belgian artist’s website and Twitter page to see more, in both black and white and colour.
I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend Marge and the Great Train Rescue and will be looking out for the other books in the series for my niece and nephew.
Reviewed by Jan Kershaw
Rating out of 10: 9
Released by: Allen & Unwin
Release Date: August 2017
RRP: $14.99 hardcover
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