Thomas the Tank Engine. by W. Awdry

I love that this is the original oldy-timey version of the Thomas stories. My son loves the illustrations. The size is easy to handle. There are about 3-4 stories per book.

The story is abbreviated, true. And the illustrations are somewhat flat. BUT you get the 3-D face on the cover, the theme song played at the perfect volume with cows and sheep on the first double page (can hear the song better with the book open). Our one year old rarely makes it past that first page but there's no need! A run through of the song, some moos and baas... cheers up a sad (car bound) baby everytime.

This book is a classic. It contains the exceptional stories Thomas and Gordon, Thomas' Train, Thomas and the trucks and Thomas and the breakdown train. In the first story, the little blue engine gets carried away with himself and gets a run for his money from Gordon. In the next, Henry is ill so Thomas takes his passenger train with embarrasing results. In the one after, Thomas has a go with some troublesome trucks. Finally, while he is shunting, Thomas notices James having some trouble with some trucks, he gets a hold of the breakdown train and saves James and gets a Branch line of his very own with two coaches.