Fear of the dark
Every night, thousands of children lie awake staring into the darkness. When the world grows quiet and the lights go out, a mysterious train appears — arriving only when a child needs it most.
Agnesa Mirabel · Book one of four
Some nights, a train comes for the children who cannot sleep
It arrives only when a child needs it most. On board, the dark stops being frightening, anxious thoughts grow quieter, and the night begins to feel safe again.
The series
The Luminous Train
To give children more than just a story for sleeping. Four books, each boarding at a different station of childhood — written to be read aloud, and to give a parent the words for what is hard to say.
Believing in your own ideas
They remember their mistakes. They wonder if their ideas are good enough. They think about all the times they tried, but no one noticed. At each stop Oliver learns that every effort matters, that mistakes are part of growing, and that he does not have to carry the pressure to be perfect.
Your own unique gifts
When the moment comes to step forward, even when fear is still present, the train appears once again — arriving exactly when a child is ready to grow. Courage is not the absence of fear, but moving forward with it.
The Timeless Realm
The train arrives once more, exactly when a child needs to slow down. Oliver travels to a place where time does not push and nothing important is ever lost: where slowing down is not a mistake but a way to truly notice life, where quiet moments are full rather than empty, and where a child begins to understand that their own rhythm is enough.
A quiet stop
Dark doesn’t mean dangerous.
The very first thing the train teaches — carried gently to every child who lies awake watching the dark.
The Luminous Train · Book One
Where the train stops
Every station is a feeling
The train does not travel through places. It travels through the things children carry and rarely have words for. Each stop gives one of them a name.
The Underground of Silence
Where the noise of the day finally stops, and a child can hear their own thoughts again.
Station of Shadows
Where the shapes on the bedroom wall turn out to be branches, and nothing more.
Station of Dreams
Where the train slows down, and sleep stops being something to resist.
Station of Others’ Expectations
Where a child can set down the suitcase they have been carrying for somebody else.
Station of Forgotten Ideas
Where the thoughts they gave up on are kept safe, waiting to be claimed.
Station of Invisible Efforts
Where everything they tried — and nobody saw — is counted after all.
Inside the books
It has no timetable
It arrives exactly when you need it, and it stops at your very own station. Written to be read aloud, in the voice you use when there is no hurry left in the evening.
From the first pages
Dear reader
These are not just stories. They are journeys — to the place where your thoughts live, your dreams, and the questions that are sometimes hard to say out loud.
A book that parents read to their children, then children read on their own, and later return to as adults — discovering completely new meanings. Because the Magic Train grows with you.
It has no timetable. It arrives exactly when you need it. And it stops at your very own station.
Perhaps today it has come to remind you that you are capable of more than you think. So don’t wait. Hop aboard. Make yourself comfortable. We are about to depart.
Next stop
A Christmas journey
The train has one more journey to make this winter. It is being written now.
Watch it take shape on Instagram.
The author
Agnesa Mirabel
As a child, I lived in stories.
An orthodontist and a mother of two, living between Odessa and Belgium. She came to writing for children the way she talks to them: not by explaining, but by offering images and feelings, and leaving room around them to think.
Her books deal with what usually goes unsaid — being overwhelmed, being unusually sensitive, and the invisible thread between a parent and a child. The illustrations are watercolours, painted by hand.
Read her story ›The bookshop
Order a signed copy
Every copy can be dedicated by hand. Give the child’s first name at checkout and Agnesa writes it in before the book is posted — the same way she signs them at book fairs.
Visit the shopMeeting her at a book fair?
Scan the code on her table to open this page, browse the whole series, and still take a dedicated copy home even if the one you wanted has just sold out.
Where to find her ›