Customer Reviews

Thomas the Tank Engine Coming and Going (Board Books)

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This is a great little book. My one year old daughter was mesmerized by the pictures and true to life colors. We have other books in this collection but none of them have caught her eye quite like this one! I think I might order a few more as I can already tell that this book will get much wear!

A good pedagogical concept, to be sure: the explication of opposites. But almost every pairing is problematic. While James indisputably is IN the engine shed, it's not quite clear that Thomas is fully OUT.

And it gets worse. Next, the meanings of EMPTY and FULL are plumbed, but not in a satisfactory way. The carriage Clarabelle is said to be EMPTY, but what we see is merely a carriage with CLOSED doors. It cannot be said from the empirical evidence that the EMPTY assertion is true; it may well be false. On the opposite page, the carriage Annie is labeled as FULL, but what we see are the doors opening and passengers leaving the coach--truly an example of EMPTYING rather than that of the state of fullness.

Things improve somewhat with COMING and GOING, the title concept for the book. Sir Topham Hatt is presiding happily over the COMING of Thomas (but why is his back to Thomas? Is this disapproval?) and the GOING of Percy. But for the concept to be valid, we must presuppose that neither engine is going backwards, as tank engines can do very well.

A better illustration of opposites is UP and DOWN. Bertie the Bus clearly is ascending the hill--no doubt a therapeutic act after his defeat in the race against Thomas--and the yellow car driven by the fetching brunette is obviously coming downhill. But even here questions remain--why has the artist chosen to obscure the woman's face? Is she coming downhill from something of which she is ashamed?

The book concludes on a positive note, with Gordon and Henry demonstrating UNDER and OVER with the happy confidence you would expect from these big engines.

Overall, this book, after a stumbling start, ultimately redeems itself, possibly at the price of having to explain too much to someone still learning to talk. Recommended, but one would be SMART rather than DUMB to buy it USED rather than NEW.