A Crack in the Track (Thomas & Friends) (Beginner Books

Thomas and Friends

by W. Awdry

What does it take to bring the entire Island of Sodor Railway System to a halt? Just a crack in the track. Well, a crack in the track and some hail on rail . . . and a toad in the road, and a fuss on the bus. In fact, one thing leads to another until just about everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Luckily, there’s a breakdown train with a couple of cranes that can fix a big mess (and they don’t mind the rain).


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Trains, Fiction, Transport

48 pages, Hardcover

First published February 24, 2001

About the author

Wilbert Vere Awdry, OBE, better known as the Rev. W. Awdry, was an English clergyman, railway enthusiast and children's author, and creator of Thomas the Tank Engine, who starred in Awdry's acclaimed Railway Series.

The characters that would make Awdry famous, and the first stories featuring them, were invented in 1943 to amuse his son Christopher during a bout of measles. The first book (The Three Railway Engines) was published in 1945, and by the time Awdry stopped writing in 1972, The Railway Series numbered 26 books. Christopher subsequently added further books to the series.

Reviews

[LaDonna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who does not like Thomas the Tank? Unlike me, he does not age a bit.

Like most Thomas the Tank books, A Crack in the Track is a cute and simple story that has a cute and simple message to follow. There is some rhyming, but it is not consistent. Thomas will bring a smile to any child's face.

[Neyda · Rating 3 out of 5]

read this for my niece

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The current favorite.

[FionaHarmon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Abounding with inaccuracies.
After the hail storm Thomas finds part of his train track has cracked. "The hail had made a crack right there in the track!"
unfortunately it seems Thomas succumbed to post hoc ergo propter hoc in his fracture analysis. More likely I think the steel cracked for a non hail related reason because steel is stronger than ice.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

3 year old son loved this. He loved trying to guess what would happen next!

[Saske · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple story with a well paced plot that teaches a good lesson through simple and fun rhymes.

[Bethel Swift · Rating 2 out of 5]

I grew up watching Shining Time Station and reading original Thomas the Tank Engine stories and found this one to be quite disappointing. I get the Dr Suess rhyme but the actual substance is inaccurate which I think does a disservice to children. Unfortunately, it has great rereadability so if you do purchase it, you'll find yourself explaining that all the people from a train would not be able to fit in a bus and then a helicopter and that a bus would not ask passengers to disembark for a toad in the road (even one drawn so off scale that it is half the size of the bus driver). To be fair, the trains and coaches having personalities is an original theme, but I don't mind that because children can easily recognize that as being fiction, whereas the other two examples I gave are not clearly unrealistic to younger readers.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some surprisingly good rhymes.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen to the request of a 2 yr old often times for "a cwackin a twack"... and it becomes exceptional.
Good memory.

[Christopher Lutz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone who wasn’t familiar with the series must have wrote this. Had a Dr Seuss feel to it which was strange

[Tommy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A favorite of all the Thomas books we have in the house. A hail storm causes quite a fuss on Sodor when it rips a crack in the track.

[Kate prefers books to people · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read with my 2yo, who hordes her favorite books under her pillow and between stuffed animals.

[m · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just ok

[Cece · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple story with an important message

[Jacob · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you can’t rhyme all the time, just don’t rhyme at all!

[Jeffrey Hite · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best thing I can say about this book is that it is rather short. Thomas the Tank Engine has never been high reading, but it seems to me that since the Thomas Movie the books have gone down hill. This is a good example of that.

My younger kids like the book because it is Thomas, but the older kids groan at even having to hear it while I read it to the younger ones, and shout suggestions at the book from across the room, like how did hail break a huge metal track? Or Why not drive around the toad. And If they are in a gross mood, just run the stinking toad over. My Favorite thought on this is do you know how much money they lost between stopping all rail traffic on this line, loosing customers and then flying the ones that stuck around in a helicopter to their destination.

But, it is a kids book so. The sign songy rhyming is not too over the top, though I think it could have been done better. The premise of the book is rather improbably, but we are talking about a world where train engines can talk. If you have read all the Thomas books a 100 times and you are looking for one that your younger kids will like you could do worse than this one.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

My book is from the Cat in the Hat Beginner Books division of Random House. Fans of Thomas & Friends will enjoy A Crack in the Track as another chapter in the long running series. It is a good early reader and the many children that love this series will be motivated to master the story themselves.
Age Range: 3 and up

[Felicity The Magnificent · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book Henry the engine had a boiler ache. The hail fell down. Sometimes it's strong and it breaks the track. The driver was sitting inside. Thomas stopped. The other trains had to push Thomas on his back. Gordon was standing behind Henry, and James was standing behind Gordon. I liked this book. This is a long book.

[Shawn Fairweather]

My son rec'd a four pack of Thomas books for Xmas with this being one of them. All four books are of typical Thomas fashion using vivid colors, inclusion of many Thomas's friends, and age appropriate storylines that my son highly enjoys. Any book that Parker picks up and hands me to read him gets a thumbs up from me, these books get read much more than others!

[Taylor Troncin · Rating 3 out of 5]

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!! Wesley ended up having almost everyone read this story to him multiple times!

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a big fan of Thomas books to begin with. This one has problems because it doesn't know if it wants to be a rhyming book. It's starts as a story and then midway through it starts to rhyme for a few pages and then goes back to the story.

[Kaitlyn (ktxx22) Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

2020: Cute little board book! Really enjoyed the rhyming bits! I wish there had been more of them.

2023: update I read to my kids tonight and there’s some questionable things in this book that go against what’s possible and yeah I docked it a star for ridiculousness

[Gennie Hendrick]

This book will peek the children's interest because of the characters in the story. This book has rhyming words that would be good for children to be able to identify.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

my son was a thomas the tank engine fan bought all the books we could to help him learn to read....

[Cindy DeLong · Rating 5 out of 5]

My family loves this book. We read it often in their early elementary school years and I still have parts of it memorized all these years later.

[Desi A · Rating 2 out of 5]

For awhile I regretted picking this up used. The story is fine, but it can't make up its mind whether its rhyming or not.

[Elaine Shircliff]

This is a great read for children to teach them that you can do anything but sometimes you need a little help.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas runs my life! Toddler Hood!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun rhymes make this better than your average Thomas story

[Ashley Trueblood · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son is a Thomas enthusiast and loves this