I listened to the audio version of this book. It tells the story of a young boy,Oscar Ogilvie,growing up in Cairo,
Illinois when the Great Depression hits. Oscar's father looses his job and the bank reposseses their house and sells everything in it including their model train layout. When his father leaves to find a job in another state,Oscar is forced to live with his aunt and cousin. His only entertainment is going to the bank to see the model train setup there. When robbers enter the bank, Oscar dives for cover on the train layout and ends up in the train and time travels to the future. Wells does a great job describing what everyday life was like during the Depression. She also includes some famous people from the time including a young actor that Oscar meets on the train named "Dutch", who was actually Ronald Reagan. I would recommend it to 4-6th grade boys who like the Percy Jackson series, boys who have read the Magic Tree House series and boys who need to read a historical fiction title.