Customer Reviews

I Love Trains!

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If someone in your house loves trains, they will find a kindred spirit in the little boy who narrates this delightful book. He tells us what he likes about a passing train ("I like trains that hoot and roar/as they rumble by my door"), and the surprise at the end is sweet. Illustrations are bright, outlined scenes in a rural setting. Some illustrations are very simple and others are filled with activity. The boy's dad is mentioned and seen in the story, nice for kids to see. And, as a bonus, the endpages show and describe the various kinds of train cars -- the tender and engine, a hopper, boxcar, flatcars, a tanker, gondolas and the caboose. This is a deceptively simple book that can be a joy and an enrichment for you and your little train lover.

A little "engineer", complete with striped hat, watches out the window as a long train rolls by. As every car crosses each two page spread of this book, he tells us about what it's used for and what it might be carrying. And as the caboose finally rounds the bend, we all get to see why this little boy loves trains..... Philemon Sturges has written a delightful picture book that will charm and amuse all young train lovers. His simple, gentle, happy text, told in rhyme and full of rhythm and motion is complemented by Shari Halpern's large, bold, childlike illustrations and small children will enjoy the color and detail. With additional information about trains and their cars on the inside front and back covers, I Love Trains is perfect for pre-schoolers and future engineers, everywhere.

My 2 1/2 year old son has loved this book for over a year, and has it completely mesmorized. I have taped the pages so many times, I am going to have to break down and by another one. The inside cover naming all the diffent types of train cars is awesome. You have to have this book, it is THE BEST.

I LOVE TRAINS is a reading one-on-one book, but it's really two books in one. The first is a simple book that lets the child learn to read, telling about the uses of different kinds of cars on trains. But it's also a great picture book. The illustrations are colorful, fun, and contain lots of interesting things to look at. Several of the pictures are excellent for sitting with a child and making up a story, or for asking the child "What do you see in this picture? What's going on?" A great Rx for the imagination.

I stumbled upon this one at my local library. This is a cute poem about train lovers and it has large childlike pictures. There's even additional information about trains on the back and front inside covers which is cool. My son loves the rhymes and insists on me reading the facts and points out things he knows about trains. This inside cover facts are great way for engaging your child about trains, outside of the story itself.

BTW: The "secret stuff under wrap" is a space shuttle, not a weapon as the one reviewer thought. It's a children's book after all! Don't let one clueless reviewer's comments deter you from a great book. Check it out at your local library and see for yourself ... and then buy a copy.

We have the board version of this book, which does not have any added information on the endpapers. Purchasers should be aware that the editions are not the same.

I purchased this book for my 21 month old daughter who is wild about trains (we live right next to the tracks). My daughter likes this book and I would recommend it if your child is train obsessed and fairly young. The simple, bold illustrations are clear and uncluttered. The text is also simple and to the point. It flows well enough when read aloud. It rhymes (kind of). There is just enough information for a younger toddler to learn something but not be overwhelmed (train cars carry different things). It is about real trains rather than toys.

I gave it four stars rather than five because I consider "chugga-chugga choo-choo" (by Kevin Lewis with pictures by Daniel Kirk) a five star book and this is just not in the same class. The board book version, at least, is very very short with few pages or words. It loses its flow at the end. I thought "weapon" for the "under wrap" also which gave it a menacing feel (though I frankly didn't think about it much, just didn't feel very warm and fuzzy, to be sure.) I agree that a space shuttle would be much, much bigger. However, there IS a space station in the companion "I Like Planes", so who knows that the author or illustrator intended. My 21 month old knows "plane" and "rocket" and has no opinion at all on how big a space shuttle is. I would venture to say few children young enough to be interested in this very simple text do. Also, we are still working "don't hit" and I venture to say that any discussions on the glory verses horrors of war are not in our near future. Therefore, the problem of dislike of that particular page is much more mine than my daughter's. I have no problem with telling my daughter that the thing under wraps is simply "a plane" or "a rocket ship".

More relevant to a younger child, I think, is that if the child's father does not happen to ride on a caboose past her house, the "I'm glad to see the car that carried Dad" is a little puzzling and now takes the scenario out of her realm of experience. I know that one reviewer suggested that, in the companion "I Love Planes" the child is imagining that Mom is on the Space Station and if one's child is unable to make that leap he or she is sadly lacking intellectually. I myself think that that intellectual exercise is a bit much for the younger toddler that I think this book is appropriate for.

Still, one can never have too many books on one's offspring's major passions, and I do not think that the snags inherent in this book are necessarily prohibitive to it's enjoyment by a rail entranced tot.

My grandson loved the library copy of book so much that I checked it out for him many times and finally bought him his own copy for his birthday. The text and art go together perfectly and trains are popolar with lots of little kids.

My son has loved this book since we discovered it in our local library when he was only 16 months old. We check it out constantly and his face always lights up when he sees it. My 5 year old daughter loves to read it to him and enjoys it almost as much as our little train enthusiast. He'll be so happy when he finds this among his presents at his upcoming 3rd birthday party.

The illustrations in this book are cute, colorful and age appropriate. The text is very basic, suitable for young toddler, but not for children over 3 years old. My 2-year old son, who love trains, loves this book, and we read it often. The flow of the text is nice enough for reading aloud to him. As a mom, I wish there was more of story or at least more information, like the names of the train cars, within the book. There are informative pages inside both the front and back covers, but they are not part of the book text. If you are looking for a fun, quick read for a young toddler who enjoys trains, this would be a good book. If you are looking for an educational read or something for an older child, then I would pass on this book.

Since my 2 yr old nephew loves trains, I bought him this book. He loves it! Added bonus that it rhymes, so it's easy to read and has a nice cadence when you read it. You can't go wrong with this book if your little one loves trains!