If you didn’t know already, T goes tipsy for trains.
He loves all types, but if he had to choose, he would go for the locomotive. I don’t know whether it’s the sound they make or how pretty they are, but whenever he catches sight of a steam train he goes nuts.
We’ve been to the Bluebell Railway already, and already have plans to visit Eastbourne’s miniature Railway soon. At Christmas, I lost count of the times we watched Polar Express, and at least once a day he asks whether he can watch Thomas & Friends. I’m pretty confident in saying that our son is an absolute anorak when it comes to trains – and more so about Thomas and Friends. He can name all the characters – even the cameo ones that haven’t made the cut of being a regular – and can remember what happens in most episodes.
So, when we Boolino got in touch and asked whether T would like to review the new Thomas and Friends Character Encyclopedia, I couldn’t contain my excitement as I knew T was going to blow a gasket at the sight of this.
So many trains!
I’m going to go straight to the point and say that the Thomas and Friends Character Encyclopedia is brilliant. If you’re looking for any negatives in this post, you’re not going to find any – mainly because there aren’t.
The Encyclopedia is everything you would hope to see in a book like this. The pages are bright and colourful, with thick pages that have stood up to T’s rigorous, and often excitable, page turning.
Starting off with a brief introduction about the ‘steamies’, the book takes you through the various engines of Sodor; going into great detail about the actual history of every make of engine featured, including when it was featured on the show, what happened, as well as lots of facts about the character itself.
As you continue through the book, you’re presented with all the other characters, including those that feature ‘off the tracks’ as well as the cameo appearances; such as the Flying Scotsman. There is also a large feature about the various international trains that have visited Sodor.
At the back, there is also a Glossary when it comes to understanding trains, as well as an Index for every character featured – I honestly didn’t know there were so many!
A sweet addition that comes with the book is a little Thomas train that’s in a clear box attached to the book. It’s not sealed, so there is the option to take the train out of it’s box if you want to play with it, but in fear of losing the train we’ve decided to keep ours in there. Sorry T!
Whilst T is happy just to look at the pictures at the moment, I’m confident that over the years he’s going to keep coming back to this book to look at the different features. I’ve really enjoyed sitting down with him and finding out what he knows as well as learning a few things myself! He’s really interacted with the book and has asked lots of questions.
The show has certainly evolved over the years, when it was called Thomas the Tank Engine. I can’t believe there have been so many new characters added. That being said, I still miss the ORIGINAL (and better) theme tune!
We were sent the Thomas and Friends Character Encyclopedia by Boolino for the purpose of an honest review, however all thoughts, opinions, and images are our own.
