At night, when most children are sleeping, a little boy and his stuffed dog take a dreamlike journey by train, making stops along the way to have a picnic, play ghosts, go for a swim, fly kites and "muck about with umbrellas." At each stop, an unwelcome animal passenger boards their train and begs to be allowed to go with them: each is an endangered animal running away from human threats and each is eventually added to the ever-growing passenger list. Burningham combines whimsical, scratchy pen-and-ink drawings with abstract mixed media paintings in a complex, multilayered contemporary fantasy that can be understood and enjoyed on many different levels. (Ages 3-7)

At bedtime a young boy takes a trip on his toy train and rescues several endangered animals.