Chugga Chugga Choo Choo

All About Sounds

by Emma Garcia

"Chugga chugga choo choo. Here comes the train." And it’s rolling down the tracks in this vibrant board book! Follow it along and count the birds that join the trip.
 
All aboard, and all join in as the cheerful little train chugs past the seaside, the farm, the forest, the city, and into the station for a nice long rest. Along the way, a flock of noisy seagulls and blackbirds, pigeons and geese hop on for the ride. Kids will have fun looking at Emma Garcia’s colorful, collaged landscapes and counting all the honking, cooing, tweeting birds.

Genres: Picture Books, Storytime, Trains, Transport, Counting, Childrens, Birds

26 pages, Board Book

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

NEVER GOOGLE HEARTBREAK is Emma's first novel very loosely based around her own experiences of being in her thirties and single in London, of being dumped, getting over it, and falling for it all over again. She has worked as a waitress, technical assistant, chambermaid, sandwich designer, product manager, illustrator and teacher, and spent a while traveling and working in Asia. She has also written and illustrated three children's picture books. She now lives in Yorkshire with her husband and three children, and is getting excited about the launch of the second book in the series, OMG BABY!

You can follow Emma on Twitter @EmzaGarcia.

Reviews

[Becky]

First sentence: Chugga chugga choo choo...here comes the train! Clickety clack on the track. Going to...the seaside. We can taste the ice cream.

Premise/plot: This train has four cars--all numbered. As the train goes from stop to stop or destination to destination, the train picks up passengers--BIRDS. I'm doing a poor job of saying this is both a COUNTING book and a TRAIN book. The book also follows a certain pattern or rhythm...making it predictable. Many books for this age group are predictable. It's a positive, not a negative!

My thoughts: I liked it well enough. I didn't love, love, love it. I would be curious to kid-test this one to see how well it works. I can't stress this enough: kids and adults experience picture books differently. And a book can wow adults and flop with the intended audience. Likewise, a book that bores or annoys or confuses adults can be a child's BEST BOOK EVER. I think this one has some potential in a shared reading experience. Parents--caregivers--can make it more interactive, ask questions, point out things, count together, do animal noises or other sound effects, add their own commentary, etc.

Text: 3 out of 5
Illustrations: 3 out of 5
Total: 6 out of 10

[Claire Waldron-Gross]

This was a hit at storytime, even with my most difficult crowd: the toddler classes I visit during outreach, who are often distracted and have a low adult-to-child ratio.

The structure makes it easy to build repeated motions into the story, to emphasize the repeated text. The details of each setting let me go into more depth with the older groups.

The pictures are colorful and clear. Some of the details are hard to see if you have kids in the back of a medium to large group, but overall the images translated well to the whole room. The settings are well-defined and the kids were able to identify them readily.

Plus, trains are always a hit.

[Alison Reads]

A fun read-aloud for the very young. I like that it does different senses (taste, see, hear, smell) for each location (seashore, farm, city, forest) that the train visits. Although I was a little disappointed to have "taste the ice cream" at the seashore. I'd have preferred taste the salt in the air or something. But I'm a health nut so...anyway... I like that it introduces numbers 1 through 5 and different bird calls. The illustrations are typical Emma Garcia with googly eyes and bright colors. My 2-year old loves it.

[Johan Fahlvik Thilander]

Truls har en långtgående tågperiod och att se honom läsa denna och hojta "TUT TUT" är ett nöje.

[Angela]

What an awesome train book! I already can't wait to use it for storytime! :) I love how the rhythmic quality of the text seems to imitate the sound of a train going down the track. And there's so so SO much you could talk about with a storytime group! Kids can chime in with the train noises ("Chugga chugga choo choo!"), answer questions about the different places the train visits ("The train is at the farm! What kind of animals do you see?"), and even count the birds that hitch a ride. The cut paper images are high contrast with lots of interesting texture. I think this will quickly become one of my storytime favorites. :)

[FM Family]

I feel like I should give it a higher rating because my two year old loved it but it didn’t really stand out. Smart having one of the final pages include “shoo, birds, fly away!” Because she LOVED saying that along with the book. Simple story about a train visiting multiple locations that led to a weekend of playing “train” with my kid. I was looking for a story about a train journey, rather than a sort of “how trains work” or personification of trains, like in Thomas, ad while this wasn’t exactly right, it hit the spot.

[Julia]

This book has everything. Trains. The five senses. Counting. Colors. Talking about going to different places. A "good night" ending. You could go in so many directions with this picture book in storytime, and the shapes are really simple and easily adaptable to a flannel board. It's a stellar toddler choice, too, with lots of action and repetition and train noises and opportunities for movement and engagement.

[Maxine Fife]

This is a great book for young children and children learning to count. I think the illustrations in this book are fantastic and really helps children how to count. This book is easy to read and easy to follow along. I think this book would easily keep children's attention while also being informational. All in all, I think this book is fantastic for young children and school aged children learning to count.

[Mary Peble]

As an adult, I don't see the attraction to this book, but my two-year-old loves it! The repetition is catchy, so I actually caught him reciting, "Chugga, chugga, choo, choo! Clickety clack, on the track, going to the.... farm!" at times when the book was nowhere near. It also cleverly incorporates counting two four (and matching the quantity with the written number) as well as four of the five senses. There's more to it than initially meets the (adult) eye.

[Marissa]

There are a lot of things to find and introduce in this book that has kept it in the rotation over several years. The words are sing-songy and fun to repeat. There is a fun challenge to trying to remember/predict to which location the train will go next and what it will do there. The numbers on the train cars and the different types of birds and different sounds they make add interest and practice counting. If the child likes trains, even better!

[Tracey]

picture book (trains, counting, birds; toddler-friendly ages 2 and up--could be read to a younger child as a one-on-one/nongroup readaloud)
LARGE print, short sentences, and a colorful train (with accompanying, repetitive sound effects), plus the opportunity for participatory counting make this a gread read aloud for toddlers.

[Jo Oehrlein]

Illustrations are very Eric Carle-ish.

The train visits the beach, the forest, the city, and the farm. Along the way, it picks up birds -- 1 seagull in the first car, 2 black birds in the second car, 3 pigeons in the 3rd car, and 4 geese in the 4th car. Each place visited also is paired with a sense (taste, hearing, sight, and smell). We also hear what sounds the various birds make.

[Rose Rosetree]

Take a ride on preschooler joy. And yes, a shiny red train is involved too.

Simple words and gorgeous illustrations make this an excellent choice for FIRST BOOK for an inant.

There's even a bit of counting practice. Plus happy animals.

Everything's happy on this trip, actually.

FIVE STARS, with thanks to author and illustrator Emma Garcia.

[Mary]

A lot of different things are going on in this book - repetition from page to page as the train encounters various landscapes, numbers on each of the train cars, and a matching number of birds in those train cars. Great for young children who love trains and are learning to count.

[Jessica Furtado]

A fairly predictable train book, but one that toddlers will still enjoy. This would be a fun, interactive storytime book as children can repeat the train sounds throughout. Colorful illustrations and a variety of settings appeal to the eye and imagination.

[Cara Byrne]

This is a fun book for train loving little ones, though it wasn't the easiest book to figure out what should be read and what doesn't need to be pointed out. The artwork reminded me of the work of Ezra Jack Keats.

[Amanda]

This is a little more basic than I had anticipated. It is still cute -- train goes to forest, big city, seaside, and somehow collects birds from each place. It was a neat little book, but probably better for smaller ones than older toddlers.

[Jennifer]

This book is very simple and repetitive, but make sure you look closely at the illustrations! Suitable for a train, transportation, bird, or counting theme in toddler story time. (There's not enough of a story for my preschoolers.)

[Alissa Pletcher]

This is a great number and counting book. It is a fun read-aloud for young kids. It brings up using different senses and many locations throughout the book for children to learn from. It's also a good repetitive book to get children to start reading and use as a learn to read book.

[Leslie]

This was a great book for Train Storytime in Music & Movement. After the story we did "2 Little Blackbirds" to celebrate the birds in the book. Then we went around the room pretending to be trains to a Train song and train whistle. A hit!

[Binxie]

This one has colorful bold illustrations with enough unexpected details creating the ability to use this in storytime for multiple age levels. Observational skills can be practiced with prompts by the reader. Simple counting and repetitive text add to this one's appeal.

[Essie (Sarah)]

I really love the little story in this one, but the illustrations are confusing. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be counting the birds along the way or even when they’ve flown in. The illustrations are also not my fav in general.

[Juliana Lee]

The train makes stops along the way to pick up birds 1-4. At the end of the day who is making all the noise? The birds! Shoo. Go home. Train goes to sleep.

[Tracie]

Another great train book!

[Jschofi4]

Predictive text. Interesting illustrations.

[Katie]

Toddler storytime. Possibly preschool.

[Syntha Green]

Really liked this for Toddler storytime - short, simple and counting with bold illustrations good for the littles.

[Celeste]

I didn't think anything could top Tip Tip Dig Dig, but I think Chugga Chugga Choo Choo is my favorite now. Lots of fun at storytime if you do all the sounds.

[Ann]

Fun book for a train or even a counting storytime. Would make a great felt story as well. Same author as Tip, tip Dig, Dig(one of my favorites for storytime)

[Jenn]

From the author of Tip Tip Dig Dig, a new book about trains, counting and birds. A small train travels to four different environments, unknowingly picking up passengers along the way.