Thomas the Tank Engine: The Complete Collection

Rating:
Summary: THE Must-Have Thomas the Tank Engine Book
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: Not the best Thomas book, but lots of stories
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Not the best Thomas book, but lots of stories
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A must-have for Thomas Fans!!!
Review: My son received this book for Christmas this year. He loves it! I read to him every night and at nearly 3 years old he couldn't really sit still for stories that were too long. This book has changed that! He never wants me to stop reading and the illustrations are great! I would recommend this to Thomas collectors as a must-have item!

Rating:
Summary: A great way to have fun reading
Review: My sons age 3 and 16 month LOVE this book!! i have to keep it up high or they would take it off the shelf and "fight" over what story to read. the pictures are great for encouraging them to figure out what will happen next. i never thought my youngest would love this book until he was older but as soon as the book comes out at nighttime they hop on the couch waiting to see what stories we will read tonight. they ask for it everyday!!
my older son will look at the book alone when his brother is napping and loves to "READ" me a story. my husband was leary of getting this book as it is not a board book and he was afraid it would get ruined. but after we got it he is also thrilled. we can't recommend this book enough for all purposes, reading, identifying, colors, numbers, imagination, recall, and best of all FAMILY TIME!! if you get this book you WILL NOT be dissapointed.

Rating:
Summary: ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!
Review: My three year old grandson loves Thomas the Tank and all his friends. When I found this entire collection, I immediately purchased it for delivery to his home. When he came to visit at Christmas, the book had to come also. I loved it - he loves it - his parents love it. What a great buy for a Thomas fan. He actually laid in the floor for an hour looking at this book without someone having to read to him; however, when it is time for reading, he almost always requests this book.

Rating:
Summary: ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!
Review: My three year old grandson loves Thomas the Tank and all his friends. When I found this entire collection, I immediately purchased it for delivery to his home. When he came to visit at Christmas, the book had to come also. I loved it - he loves it - his parents love it. What a great buy for a Thomas fan. He actually laid in the floor for an hour looking at this book without someone having to read to him; however, when it is time for reading, he almost always requests this book.

Rating:
Summary: My son(22 months) can not put this book down.
Review: My young son got interested in Thomas in the last 3 months. I bought this book for a friend's child and wound up buying another because my son just won't put it down. In fact we have to limit the number of stories at a sitting. He will sit for 1/2 an hour or more just for one story after another. Even at less than 2, he can tell you all about Thomas and friends from the stories in this book and has started to act them out with the wood train set he has. It is great creative play!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Hadn't thought about the tone of the stories.......
Review: Others in this post are right. While the variety of the stories is refreshing, and you learn some history of the engines, the stories are about misbehaving and mischief....almost a little dark at times. You have to consider when they were written though, not easy times in America. Terminology is different then the contemporary counterparts, but you know, it just gives a parent another chance for teaching their kids words and concepts. My 2 1/2yr son fully understands "naughty" by the descriptions in these stories of the trucks (freight cars) The term naughty was used in a contemporary Thomas book.

Rating:
Summary: The Complete Edition
Review: Our son loves this book. When he received it for Christmas he stopped opening the rest of his gifts and looked at this book. My wife and I had to make him open the rest of his gifts. Our son love any Thomas The Tank Engine Product.