Owain Bell

Thomas is just soooo smug in the knowledge that he can show up to do his very important job or that he can just blow off the ostensible duties of his sinecure and decide not to stop that day and go joyriding around the Isle of Sodor instead, and all the people who don't make it to work and almost get their arm taken off waving down a speeding train can just lump it. And every kid will wanna hear all about it and laugh at his antics. It's locomotive privilege, is what it is. To the manner built.

This is a train book. Most importantly it is a Thomas the Tank Engine book; and to a 3 year old, nothing is as exciting as a race between two of his steamy friends: little Thomas and mighty Gordon.

Over on Amazon, some moms have bemoaned that Thomas wins the race through trickery, But I like to think of it as Thomas winning by *thinking* rather than shear brawn. (What kind of a `real' race is it anyway between a huge steamy and little ole Thomas? Gordon might as well have been racing Toby show more the steam tram.)

As far as the text is concerned, I have to say that the rhyme is awkward. I believe the author would have been better off using 54+ words to get better verse, but I guess that did not fit into the magic scheme of 50.

What does work is the `catch me, catch me, go, go, go" action-rhythm and the nicely drawn pictures. Very addicting to Thomas aficionados.

"Look, a tunnel!
A tunnel for me!
A tunnel Gordon did not see!"

"I may be slow,
You may be fast.
But I am first,
And you are last!"

As of this moment, we have not begun reading, so I can not speak to the effectiveness of the games at the end. But the `rectangles' on the included sheet sure seem small and I would have to think it would take awhile to cut them out. I would probably just copy those same words on 3x5 cards. show less

My kids and I aren't very big on Thomas the Train Engine. Lord knows we tried, but we found it rather bland and uneventful. My son still reads these books only when he's at the height of boredom.
I thought though that the illustrations were done very well, and that the moral of the story could have been conveyed with less pages. Don't let our opinions dissuade you though.
Happy Reading!

This is a great book for any train-lover child! The book follows Thomas and his friends as they try to get some mischievous animals to the zoo for a grand opening! This book is great for kids too because it is interactive. Children can pull open tabs and find out what the animals are doing in hiding!