My youngest is a train enthusiast. He’s an anything-that-travels-by-wheels guru. He’s a figure-it-out-investigator. Let’s-see-how-this-works thinker. In a way that is more mechanical than my other two. They were interested. But he is fascinated.
We have had a few birthdays for him this month because we have been traveling all over and every family stop we make we have been singing Happy Birthday along the way. One of his birthday cakes had a plastic train on it – not because it was Thomas – but because it was a build-a-block-train he could use when the cake was gone.
We usually have birthdays themes after children’s book (I LOVE children’s picture books. Some day I will write and illustrate a children’s book. Someday.) but, for now, I just collect them. Like a librarian. Freight Train was this birthday’s theme because he likes trains so much. I purchased a hard copy of the book for our family members to sign for him (Thanks cousin Cassandra for the book-momento-inspiration!!) he will always have this book with our love written inside to remember his second birthday. It was difficult to choose just one train book that we liked so muc, because he likes all books about trains…but this has been a favorite since he was an infant. I love the simplicity and cadence and illustrations.
Here is a roundup of our other Train Book Favorites.
This is a simple, beautifully illustrated, classic. I remember reading it and wishing I had written it because it was just simply fun. Upbeat. The words are easy to flow and remember. He has loved this one since we started reading books.
A new addition for me, but the Karen Katz books are fun. I really wanted to get some “other kinds of trains” into circulation and, living in the city I thought this would be a good fit. I also like the diversity of the people illustrated in the book and the colors definitely caught my attention. It’s rhyming, musical text is fun to read aloud and the repetitious sound words are easy for little ones to remember and read along.
This is one I bought for his 2nd birthday hoping to learn more about trains with longer sentence structure and more information. Some longer books he won’t sit through but a book about one of his favorite subjects that’s longer? Yep. It’s so important to find what turns your child on….their attention span and focus may surprise you when you stir one of their passions!
This is another simple, classic favorite that Lincoln chooses almost every reading time. I like the sturdy board book style while it still has vocabulary substance and I love the simple but bold graphics.
I bought this one for his birthday because it is a factual train book but has a rhyming structure which is good for early readers. It helps them anticipate the next words and chime in with the vocabulary to finish sentences. It has been a hit.
This one wasn’t on my initial photo collage but it absolutely should have been because, seriously, it has been his FAVORITE since about 8 months old! We first borrowed it from the library and he couldn’t put it down. We borrowed it 3 times in a row and then I bought a copy. And then, when I was visiting family in FL I bought a second copy to keep there. We love the sounds, the illustrations and books with onomatopoeia!