Illus. in full color. That cheeky blue engine refuses to be sidetracked from his goal of taking schoolchildren home after their visit to the train yard--despite a host of obstacles along the way.
Thomas wants to help with the kids' school excursion, but has a job to do. He is promised if he gets back on time, he can take them home. He encounters delays, just as he is confident he will arrive on time, but he has a surprise at the end!
This was easy enough for my granddaughter to read... I had to help with a couple words, but other than that she handled it fine.
My love of reading started when i was young, and it gives me immense pleasure to provide books to Spread the Word Nevada, an organization that passes them on to children in the community. They are a terrific organization supporting an important cause. If your local I encourage you to check them out. For those living further a field, look in your own community, their may already be a similar program in place. And if not, you can always help start one.
Myself, I go out on the weekends and shop thrift store and bulk book lots to rescue books and donate them. Sometimes I'll find a book I remember reading when I was young and will read it again before passing it on.
I don't rate these books using my normal scale, instead I give most of them three stars. This isn't a Criticism of the book, simply my way of rating them as good for children.
It is pretty easy to write off the serial classics like Thomas or the Berenstain Bears, but there is a reason Thomas has appealed to so many young readers over the years. The trains have simple emotions, personified, smiling faces, and want most to serve children well. This particular Thomas book ends with a girl thanking Thomas with a kids on his cheek. My son loved to see the bond between the children and Thomas. The race aspect in this book is exciting, but the desire to serve others and the children is the real pinnacle of the piece. I think this is my son's favorite Thomas book.
This book was read for Wesley’s summer reading club. Wesley is my (soon to be five year old) son. This review is what we used for his reading club. ***
Wesley loves Thomas! He and my mom read some books before bed last night.
***
I picked this book up for Wesley because he loves Thomas so much. Also, I was trying to find as many books as possible about school and school-related events to help encourage him about kindergarten.
This is a cute story especially designed for beginning readers that tells the story of Thomas the train who plans to pick up a class for a field trip but who inevitably ends up taking longer than he should have. He sees that Bert the Bus is in trouble and he helps him out which makes him even more late or does it? Read to find out : )
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 level 2 reader with simple but not 'basic' words. Children with their friend Thomas can learn to read this book easily.
Thomas is excited for the children to join him on a school trip. But he knows he has to get his work done first but has to do it quickly or someone else will have to take them home. But he finds a friend in need... this book helps teach children to help others.
My boys are big Thomas fans, so this book was a must have from our public library. Cute story about Thomas staying on task and getting school children back from their visit. Good message about helping others in this story, too.
This is a great story, with a great moral! I love that Thomas ends up helping others first, but still gets unexpectedly rewarded with what he wanted in the first place. Love it, and the memories, too!
This is one of the favorites among my boys they will read this over and over again. Thomas wanted to take the kids home but had some set backs however it worked out just fine.
My granddaughter just loved me reading this book to her. She has a deep love of books and always wants to be read to anytime of day. She is 3 years old and this book was perfect for her!
Have you ever read a book on autopilot? And then at some point your eyes start to droop and you hear yourself say like "bat" when the written word is, say, "both" and it sort of wakes you up. Your brain tells you to open your eyes and it's sort of harder than you imagined it being, despite it being just shortly after 7 p.m.
That's pretty much my experience reading this book.
Picked this up at the used bookstore because my son really likes another Thomas in the beginner reader series Blue Train, Green Train. I like the other one better, but this is a nice addition to have another Thomas option on our shelves.
This seems like a fine story for young readers, but I admit I have no frame of reference, because I read all kinds of things at the target audience age (including a dinosaur book filled with big words). I also sort of wonder how exactly Thomas expected to play with school children, but young reader books really aren't supposed to think too hard about that when the TRAINS TALK, I suppose.
Good for fans of Thomas the Train Engine! I don't know if non-fans would be interested.
(update)
I ended up finding a different copy and somehow didn't notice it was the same one until it started to sound similar. Hooray for slight cover changes throwing off my short memory! I think I prefer the hardcover, though (except for the prior owner's... branding).