'Arry and Bert - Two Very Naughty Diesels! (Thomas & Friends: 'Arry and Bert - Brigitte Aubert)

Member Name: princesslaura

Product:	Thomas & Friends: 'Arry and Bert - Brigitte Aubert
Date:	18/09/08 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good to have as part of set

Disadvantages: not the best characters

Good old Thomas the Tank Engine is traditionally the character of choice for autistic children so, true to form, our autistic three year old, Tom, fell in love with Thomas and all his friends about two years ago and hasn't stopped adoring them since. We have a huge amount of Thomas the Tank Engine books, especially the board books as they are what Tom enjoys.

About a year ago we saw a set of the first twenty five books in the 'My Thomas Library' series which are based on the original stories by the Rev. W. Awdry. The set was on offer with The Book People. It was a really good deal so we've been handing them out to the kids for ages now and they seem to have gone down well. Each book tells the story of one the characters from Sodor [or two if they are connected like 'Arry and Bert']. Since buying this set many more titles have become available in the series, including the story of 'Arry and Bert [which is number 31 in the series].

Each of the 'My Thomas Library' books begin with an introduction by the Fat Controller of the engine which the book is about. Then the proper story begins.

'Arry and Bert are a particularly unpleasant pair of diesel engines who work at the Smelter's yard and enjoy playing tricks on the steam engines. This story describes what happens one Halloween when Thomas and Emily have to go to collect some iron trucks from the yard. 'Arry and Bert lie in wait to scare them but, as any fan of Thomas the Tank will know, the baddies always get their just desserts!

The 'My Thomas Library' books are published by Egmont and are a nice handy size for little hands to carry around. They are made from good quality paper and so the pages are easy to turn [an important consideration for Tom who can get very cross with books with pages which tend to stick together].

The one thing that I don't like about this book is the illustrations. Whilst they are bright and eyecatching, I really don't rate the quality of the artistry and I tend to prefer the Thomas books which use photographs from the series.

I would say that this book is suitable for most children from age 3 upwards. This isn't one of Tom's favourites as he isn't keen on 'Arry and Bert and so he finds it too long to concentrate on but most three year olds would manage fine I think.

The RRP for this book is £2.50, but we picked ours up in Tesco for £1.97.

Summary: good for a Thomas fan