Customer Reviews

Thomas the Tank Engine. The complete collection

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book contains some great stories about Thomas the Tank Engine, and all of his friends including Percy, Henry, Gordon, Anabel, Clara, James, Bertie, and many more.

Prior to buying this, we have purchased many Thomas books for our son, most of which wear out or get destroyed very quickly as small paperback books do. This book is the perfect solution, it has ALL of the Thomas stories in it, it has a good strong cover, and it will last for a while.

My 3 year old son loves this book, it is one of his favorite bedtime books. The stories are a good length to read 1 or 2 of them at bedtime.

My son is a huge Thomas fan, and had be read him "Thomas the Tank Engine's Big Blue Treasury" every night for weeks. Hoping to get some variety, I got this giant book of all the Thomas stories written by W. Awdry (the Big Blue Treasury has 3 stories written by his son, Christopher Awdry). Compared to the son's stories, these are often violent and not really appropriate for some small children. The theme of at least half the stories is that a train is either rude or vain and then gets his punishment (either from an event, or from the teasing or revenge of the other characters). My wife won't read the stories, and I find myself doing some verbal editing of the stories whenever I see the very common story element of the other trains/trucks/coaches deciding to "pay him out" (i.e. paybacks, revenge - a phrase which seems to pop up in about a third of the stories). A couple of stories have rude trucks, which are then destroyed. If your kids watch a lot of the videos, however, you should be familar with many of the stories, as they are the basis for a lot of the videos. The book has good value in that there is a LOT of stories (I got that variety I was looking for), however to make them fit they have reduced the illustrations to a VERY small size that I find too small to do the stories justice. Also, the stories cover several decades, and I felt there was a decline in the quality of the stories as the book comes to an end. I would rather have this one than trying to collect all the individual books, however. In short, I don't think this is as good as either the Big Blue Treasury or the Big Yellow Treasury, both of which have stories better suited to small children and much bigger and brighter illustrations, and my son likes both of those books better also. This is still a good book for a Thomas fan, however, and a nice change after you have read those books a hundred times (and even if you decide to skip a few of the darker stories, it is still a good value) and it tracks many of the stories in the videos.

We bought this book a year ago, and my son still enjoys listening to the stories. He has heard each at least three times, some of them many more times besides. As his mother, who has read through the book with him twice myself, *I* love the stories, too! They teach good lessons and are very entertaining at the same time.

It actually is not true that all Thomas stories are in this book. All the original stories by the original author are, but more stories have been made up by less skilled story writers, in my opinion. The BEST Thomas stories are the ones in this book.

The shorter story books have been Americanized, and I think that makes them lose some of their appeal. For instance, the Fat Controller in this book has been renamed in the shorter books and videos to his proper name, "Sir Topham Hatt." Political correctness meets Thomas the Tank Engine. In my opinion, they were better unchanged, and that is what you have in this book.

If you have a toddler, I highly recommend this book. One word of warning, though. Then come the Thomas train sets, and the videos . . . you will never be through with Thomas once you start!

My son has been a Thomas the Tank Engine fan since 1992, when he received his first die-cast engine of Thomas for his 2nd birthday. From there we've gone on to collect nearly all Thomas paraphernalia to be had in our region. Speaking from experience, almost all Thomas licensed products are good--but this book outshines all of it! We stumbled upon this book one day, and knew immediately that this was one we had to have, for several reasons: First, all the stories are here. You just cannot find some stories in other editions, and the price of this book makes it much more economical than buying 25 story books. Secondly, the information on the author was great. Lastly, the book is one that a child can grow into: Looking at pictures as a toddler, listening to stories as a preschooler, and as my 7 year old can attest, this book is perfect for "cutting his teeth" with reading skills. He will spend hours reading a story to himself from this book. He finds it difficult but the challenge is well worth it in his opinion. Only one warning: you will have to set guidelines for how long you're willing to read at a sitting. I've never had a child lose interest in the middle of one of these stories!

We borrowed this book from the library for my 22 month old son who is recently very thrilled with Thomas. Guess who sat down and read it for hours? My ten year old daughter who had experienced Thomas as a four year-old. My eight and five year old daughters also enjoy the book. As for the little guy; he walks around with it and sits there ever so gently turning the pages. That's why I'm here at Amazon: to purchase our own copy of this delightful book with beautiful illustrations and stories. If you have a Thomas fan this is the greatest book.

Having been exposed to the contemporary "commercial" version of Thomas the Tank Engine in various forms I had low expectations for _The_Complete_Collection_. After reading all the stories over the past two months at bedtime I whole heartedly give this collection 5 stars. These are the original stories by Rev. W. Awdry--not just Thomas stories, but other trains that have been forgotten by the marketplace. The language is the Queen's English and the terminology harks back to a different place and time. Fortunately the stories are robust enough to hold up without translation for my 3-year old.

While there are rude engines, naughty engines, and ample portions of just deserts as noted by another reviewer; I find the stories to be well balanced and if the young listener isn't careful some life lessons may be learned--really useful engines are happy engines. One aspect of these stories that broadens their appeal is "Each story is based on some odd incident which has happened to some engine, somewhere, some time." (quoting the author in the foreword) Many times I found myself laughing, or shaking my head and nodding in agreement with the outcome of the story. There were several stories whose full meaning was lost on my 3-year old, but never-the-less hit a tender spot with daddy. The most requested stories are those that involve Thomas and his familiar cast of friends. In October 2005 Random house published a selection of these Thomas stories that might suit an audience not interested in small steam engines or narrow gage railroads (the additional stories in the collection). For those that have an interest in trains beyond simple children's stories this book will be a pleasure to share with your young railroad enthusiast.

The edition I am basing my review on is a 1999 Random House Printing. Unfortunately this title is out of print at the time of this review, but you may still be able to find new or like-new copies through resellers. Should this book be republished, and in my estimation it is well deserving of another print run, I would encourage the publisher to include an index at the end with references to the particular engine and what happened to him. A frequent request is "Let's read the story about James getting pushed down the hill by the trucks", or some other engine and circumstance--it would be useful to have an index.

We received this as a gift for my then 2.5 year old. I thought it might be too old for him, but he has loved hearing us read from it. The stories are short enough to hold his attention and almost always have a "lesson" to learn in them. Although sometimes the lessons seem somewhat "harsh" or mean, but then it is written in a very old-fashioned, British tone. This big book is a favorite with our family at bedtime, and my 15-month old son is even reaching for the thick book and begging to look at the train pictures. It's a great way for the kids to learn the different characters in the Thomas series.

My 3-year old son loves this book! It has a good selection of stories about Thomas and his many friends: James, Gordon, Henry, Toby, et al. The stories are short enough to hold a toddler's attention. 1 or 2 stories a night is/are perfect. The binding is sturdy, so this book will outlast many a flimsy paperback. It's also quite economical as there are 26 stories in all. When I first saw the book, I was afraid that the small size of the illustrations would be a drawback, but my son enjoys them just the same.

1,000 words aren't nearly enough, so I'll try to keep it brief. The stories in this book entranced me and my now-3-year-old daughter. The subject matter appeals to children as young as 2, but is written at a level appropriate for much older children and includes a great deal of actual technical detail.

My daughter REQUIRES these stories before bed, and I love reading them to her. If we cannot read to her, she will sit alone with this book, look at the handsome illustrations, and create stories, using the same style that Awdry uses. It has dramatically expanded her vocabulary and her sentence structure. Her desire to read the stories has focused her attention on learning to read (next, I'll post a review of "Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Lessons").

My daughter's love of the stories has led to a yearning to experience all railroad-related things, including museum exhibits, History Channel documentaries, scenic railroads, festivals-- all of which has enriched our family outings and vacations. She is now interested in anything to do with Scotland, England, and Wales because they are the origins of the trains in the book. The book has given her a greater understanding of trains and railroads than the vast majority of adults have.

Obviously, not every child will respond the same way. But I cannot imagine a children's book that could have yielded greater rewards than the Thomas book has for us.

THOMAS ... THE COMPLETE COLLECTION is beautiful, perfect for your Thomas fan. But not for the youngest ones -- it's too big, and an overwhelming number of stories for the little guys at one time. Here are all the original Rev. W. Awdry stories and all the illustrations from three separate illustrators. (You can see the different styles of illustration.) It's a big, oversize, heavy book -- you're going to have to read it aloud -- and you'll have to adopt the occasional Scottish accent, too! There's a map of Sodor, a foreword by the author, and an afterword by Brian Sibley (author of the wonderful "Three Cheers for Pooh") that includes biographical info on Awdry and the illustrators. Plus, there are a few surprises: Thomas wasn't in the first story. And there's no mention of Sir Topham Hatt in this world where all the engines have names but most of the people don't. I guess "Sir" was a Britt Allcroft compilation of the different controllers. Allcroft, by the way, must be thanked for bringing Thomas back to life in the '80s, and even though the wording of those stories is different, you'll recognize a lot of them in these originals. Get this for your Thomas fan (and yourself -- it's hard to put down!). But also get some of the more recent books that are smaller and designed for young readers.