Customer Reviews

Thomas' Engine Shed: The Classic Library (Thomas & Friends)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderful set. The books are very nicely bound, and they're big enough for my kids to hold easily without being so small that it takes away from the quality of the illustrations.

The "engine shed" box is neat, although the books are somewhat of a tight fit (and therefore difficult for my three-year-old to get back in) due to a strip of foam glued to the top. Time will tell how the box holds up; it's made similarly to the cover of a hardback book and has tape to reinforce the top hinge, so it'll probably do fine.

I chose this set over a hardcover anthology that contains the same stories collected into a single volume. My primary reason for choosing this set was that the individual books are much easier for a child to handle, which makes it easier to foster an early interest in reading. Not having seen the anthology except in photos, and given the fact that the anthology is a fraction the cost of the boxed set, it's not completely clear to me that the larger book would have created a problem. Nevertheless, I'm very pleased with the boxed set, and if I had it to do over again I would probably make the same choice.

Several of the reviews complain about the price. For what you are buying, the price is very reasonable. I have checked out every Thomas book my library has to offer; most of them are churned-out crap "based on" these original tales (which our library system doesn't have) and every copy is beat up and ripped. If you bought one of these books individually (I checked, only a few are available), it would cost you $7-$10 (for example, see Thomas the Tank Engine Anniversary Edition (The Railway Series)); this set includes 26 books. And these books hold their value, unlike the derivative cheapo Thomas books flooding the market. If they are treated nicely and kept in the box, they can be resold for near what you paid for them, or more if they go out of print.

Now to my real review--I picked up the large, one-volume collection of these stories at a flea market for next to nothing (Thomas the Tank Engine: The Complete Collection)--and I am going to buy my 2 year old this boxed set for Christmas. My toddler started his Thomas obsession with the early, George Carlin narrated Thomas and Friends episodes from the 1980s. Those episodes were all based on these stories, the original "Railway Series" written by Rev. W. Awdry starting in 1945. There is book for each of the major characters; each book has about 4 short stories. The stories introduce each engine so you get a sense of the Sodor "community" and how it grew. The reading level is fairly high, maybe first grade. However, my toddler loves to loves to listen to me read them, especially the ones he is already familiar with from the TV series. He asks for stories about his favorite characters and even remembers some of the story titles. I know these stories are going to be huge motivators to get him reading on his own in the next few years!

But the one-volume book is too large and heavy for him, and the illustrations are small; they are reproduced from the original books and were clearly intended to take up most of a page, instead of being crowded three to a page. This is a set sized for small hands. A pre-reader can pull one out and study the rich, original illustrations and think about the familiar stories that go with them. An early reader will be challenged to read at a higher level, but it will be exciting and not scary.

By the way, I was not sure my child would recognize the characters given the more vintage style of the illustrations, but he had no problem. And the illustrations are lovely, painted with care, craft and artistry.

A final note: the stories are written in British English. Boxcars are "trucks," freight trains are "goods trains," and trucks are "lorries." Also, Sir Toppem Hat is "the Fat Controller." I guess they didn't feel that would translate well to TV.

As I watched my children become more and more "into" Thomas and the Tank Engine TV episodes, books, movies, and toys, I became more and more curious about the original books, the books that had started it all. What were they like? How much had been changed? Would they seem hopelessly old-fashioned and embarrassingly politically incorrect? Given that they were written by a reverend, would they be tiresomely moralistic?

I should have had more faith in the Reverend W. V. Awdry. I should have realized that only a well-written series of books could have been popular enough and well-loved enough to have spawned an industry like this. When the opportunity arose to acquire this set at a bargain price, I leaped at the chance, and I'm ever so glad I did.

Many of the 105 stories will be familiar to watchers of the TV series and readers of the American books though it seems to me that the originals were written for a somewhat higher reading level. There are a few Briticisms whose meaning should be obvious even to us here in the Colonies, Rev. Awdry is guilty of contrasting fat and thin people for the purposes of humor in such a way as to possibly offend the morbidly uptight, but overall these should be as accessible to modern Americans as they ever were to the postwar British.

One of the joys of reading these original books is that Rev. Awdry's steam and railroad fandom come through a lot more clearly. He was constantly battling with artists in order to increase accuracy. The multiplication of engines turns out to be less a marketing gimmick than an attempt to call attention to a number of small railroads attempting to survive as tourist railroads and rolling museums, all of which are still around for Thomas fans to visit today. Rev. Awdry passed the torch to his son Christopher after 26 books and far from declining IMHO his last books were his best. (His story of Oliver's escape from scrapping resembles an escape from behind the Iron Curtain!)

The morals of these stories turn out to be no more "in your face" than those of their modern counterparts and are based on common sense and the Golden Rule. Judging from their repetition, a couple of Rev. Awdry's favorite lessons are that ignoring safety warnings is a really bad idea and playing jokes on others is fine,... as long as you can take it gracefully when they "pay you out" [back] for it!

Note: Another option worth considering is Thomas the Tank Engine: The Complete Collection, which contains all 26 books in one volume. It's likely to be cheaper (if you can find it), but the illustrations are smaller and the size a bit much in comparison to the perfectly child-sized volumes in this boxed set. In contrast Thomas the Tank Engine Story Collection contains only 14 of the books.

Note: This boxed set has a strip of packing foam glued to the inside top in order to better secure the books when some have been removed. The first one I purchased had this job done so improperly that the first half dozen books were glued to the box! Now I don't know how often this happens (at a guess, not very), but I suggest checking it out first thing and exercising caution when returning books to the box.

I only wish that Christopher Awdry's additions to the series would soon be made more easily available to us here in the colonies, perhaps in a box with expansion room for future books:

Really Useful Engines
James and the Diesel Engines
Great Little Engines
More About Thomas the Tank Engine
Gordon the High-Speed Engine
Toby, Trucks, and Trouble
Thomas and the Twins
Jock the New Engine
Thomas and the Great Railway Show
Thomas Comes Home
Wilbert the Forest Engine
Thomas and the Fat Controller's Engines
New Little Engines

The quality of the books in this set are very nice. They are also a great size for little hands to hold. The only down side is the cost of the set.

This was a product I took an extremely long time to decide to buy. I kept going back and forth on the pricing thinking that for a fraction of the price I could buy the large volume book with all the stories. However, I am so glad that I finally chose these little books, they are perfect for little hands. The illustrations are far brighter than I remembered them to be. Both my son and daughter love the stories and my older daughter sits quietly and reads them herself.

I cannot attest to the quality of the entire set, however I have three books of this set which I bought at a discount store that sells seconds. My two year old loves them. I see that I am going to have to be in for the whole set by his third birthday.

My son highly appreciated this set. The only down side, as was said, is the cost. But, still he's nuts about Thomas, so it's sure thing to make him happy for a whole month )

First of all, it is much smaller than I envisioned. when i opened it up I said "no way" it is so tiny. I gave it as a gift and it does not look like it cost over $100.
In addition, these books are written on what looks like a 4th grade reading level. It is a little boring for toddlers. It will be many years before my little one can read them on his own. If they last that long and if he is still interested in them at that age.
They call Sir Toppem Hat the Fat Controller so if you are offended by that then stay away from this.
If you are thinking about buying this for a toddler, the best part is the illustrations. The Boxed case is nice too.
It was shipped promptly and arrived in very good condition.