Binding: Paperback
Isbn: 9780679838951
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: 1993-03-16

Product Description

Full-color photos. James makes fun of his friends because they need paint jobs, but when an accident ruins his appearance, James finds himself in a real jam! Also included are "Bertie's Chase," "Percy and the Signal," and "Percy Proves a Point."

Format: Trade Paperback, 32 pages

another Thomas miss
Without going on too much, these stories are fragmented, unclear, poorly written, and the plots are lame and basically make no sense. I wrote a more in depth reveiw for "Edward's Exploit", which we bought along with this one. While some other (but most definitely not all) Thomas books revolve around a core group of charaters and seem to teach lessons and have some excitement to them, this book has a new character speaking less and less sense on every page. My toddler can't get into these.

My two year old will read "Trouble for Thomas", "A Cow on the Line" and "Thomas gets Tricked" over and over and over, but he lost interest in this collection of stories before we had even read it once. It wouldn't have been too hard for me to have read one story before buying this, but since the other Thomas books we had we such hits I figured I didn't need to . . . BIG mistake!

James in a Mess and Other Thomas Stories
Not only does this collection of tales contain the usually wonderful Thomas tales, but it features actual photographs to accompany the stories. These add a realistic touch to the sticky mess James gets in after making fun of another engine, only to have a load of goo land all over him! All the tales (several more follow) follow suit. For example, 'Percy Proves A Point' is a fun illustration of the pleasant surprises that await someone who push themselves just a little harder than they thought they could...and the joy of celebrating those victories with friends.

Not for younger Thomas fans
Our 4 year-old is excited about Thomas the Tank Engine characters, but I don't think he understands the points which these stories are making. I think he likes the *idea* of it being a Thomas book more than he enjoys listening to these stories themselves. He is just as happy to look briefly at the pictures while I summarize the story.

I know that the stories intend to teach good moral lessons, but I am sometimes uncomfortable about how they attempt to do this. For example, James is rude to some less polished train cars, so they take delight when James' resentful freight cars make James crash, causing tar to get all over James' nice paint job. The underlying message (don't be rude to others) may be lost on children who see all the characters behaving in unkind ways toward others.

Good stories, but poor illustrations (photographs)
The books consists of the traditional James stories. However, the illustrations are replaced by photographs from the videos. I believe, making the book look darker and less appealing to my three year old. My recommendation--look for an edition with the original illustrations.

Incredibly, incredibly awful
We are not intimately familiar with the "Thomas" franchise, but my son selected this book from his preschool library and I read it to my children that afternoon. We were treated to random point-of-view shifts, under-developed storylines, confusing chains of events, and pathetic moralizing. I only read the first story aloud, as the kids lost interest. I read the other tales to myself in the manner of someone unable to pull her eyes away from a car accident. If this book is par for the "Thomas" course, I'm glad we've missed the train.