Hero of the Rails (Thomas & Friends)

Thomas and Friends

by W. Awdry, Britt Allcroft

Little boys ages 3-6 will love this charming Little Golden Book that captures all the fun, friendship, and adventure of the Thomas the Tank Engine DVD Hero of the Rails. Thomas discovers a long-lost engine and attempts to save him from the scrap yard by repairing him in secret. The plan works perfectly—until that meddlesome engine Spencer gets involved!

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Trains, 2nd Grade

24 pages, Hardcover

First published August 11, 2009

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

[Pinky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thomas helps an old engine named Hiro get repaired.

[Little Seesaw · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not quite sure why these are so popular. I know there are little train kids that love Thomas. Fingers crossed my grandson doesn't climb aboard the choo choo train.

[Veena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unless your child is a die hard Thomas the Train fan, feel free to skip!

[deborah · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Thomas characters and plotline are, as usual, not very nice at all, and so the challenge with this book is remembering my altered version from one reading to the next. (Good thing my son can't read yet.) And the images are rather predictable and don't hold up particularly well to close-looking. For example, one of the images of a girl is reused twice in the book - my observation; and Spencer is drawn on a track directly behind Thomas on one page and on a track next to him on the next - was there a split in the tracks? - my 3 year old son's observation. However, since there are a whole lot of train pictures in this book, it gets a whole lot of reading time.

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

My son loves Thomas, and will happily sit through longer books that feature him. This is a lot wordier than I'd normally recommend for a fidgety boy under 2, but the illustrations are bright and colorful and my son sits through the entire thing.

As far as the story line goes, it's no great classic work of children's literature. But it's a nice story and Thomas himself is a great classic children's character. So it's worth a read :-).

[Jacqueline · Rating 3 out of 5]

A touch too long for my read loud tastes and I'm a bit annoyed that Awdry is still getting author credit for the series when this was not one of his original Thomas tales. However, this is a story any Thomas fan will love and the art is fantastic.