thomasthetankengine.com

Toot! Toot!

Is there anyone out there who has not been a Thomas The Tank Engine fan at some point in their life? I grew up with Thomas, courtesy of the story books by Reverend Awdry, who I was able to meet some two and a half decades ago. Then came the videos for the kids and Shining Time station tv show, with Ringo Starr reading the stories to begin with and being replaced by Geroge Carlin later on. Thomas has gained fans with each new generation. Now, his movie is out, and the website has taken him into cyberspace.

It's quite a neat little site, very colourful but takes a little while to load. There are little activities for pre-schoolers to play online - like Bertie picking up passengers on a bus route, and the child has to manouvre him around the route. Or they can identify peices of James, and when they have him finished he toots. There are colouring activities to print out, and even a downloadable demo of Thomas's newest CD-Rom, "The Great Festival Adventure". The site has areas for UK, Japan and the USA, with information about events relevant to each country.

Lots to do for the younger members of the family, with a bit of help from mum or dad. A nice little site for Thomas lovers.