This is not Corinne Fenton’s first picture book about a dog and like the one in The Dog on the Tuckerbox, Bob is a loyal dog, but his faithfulness is more to the trains that travelled throughout southern Australia in the 1880s than to one person.

Sent by train with a cargo of other homeless dogs to be outback rabbit hunters, Bob catches the eye of the train’s guard and is adopted by him, lucky Bob! Bob loves his owner but he loves jumping from train to train a bit more and eventually becomes renowned among the railway community. He is a wanderer and although he remembers his original guard owner and visits him, he yearns to travel more widely and so stays with many train workers over the years. Folklore has him attending many historic occasions and his photograph is still displayed at the Adelaide rail museum. Bob’s adventurous ways are perfectly captured in words and pictures in this charming book for ages 3 and up.

Alexa Dretzke is a Children’s & YA Book Specialist at Readings Hawthorn.