Huff and Puff and the New Train by Tish Rabe

HUFF AND PUFF AND THE NEW TRAIN

Tish Rabe
HarperCollins (2014)
ISBN 9780062305039
Reviewed by Eliana Summers (age 4), Alyvia Summers (age 6) and Noelle Summers for Reader Views (8/14)

“Huff and Puff and the New Train” by Tish Rabe is a “Shared Reading” level children’s book about two small, but big-hearted trains. Pulling and pushing they go slowly down the tracks as a team until one day a new train appears and challenges them to a race. It isn’t until they agree to the race that they realize this train isn’t just any ordinary train, but a speedy one! Can Huff and Puff beat this new train if they work together and keep moving forward?

“Huff and Puff and the New Train” is a cute story. The illustrations were wonderful for a children’s book, and my sisters were very engaged with looking and finding all sorts of things. (The baby ducklings were adorable if I may say so.) The story itself was straightforward and easy to read. The life lesson of “even if things seem like they won’t work out, you’ll never know until you try and just by doing so it can happen” was one I think everyone should learn no matter what age. We always give up on things that seem impossible, but in reality they’re not impossible until we give up on them.

As for reading age appropriate, “Huff and Puff and the New Train” by Tish Rabe gets 5 stars. The words fit well for this reading level and the little ones had no trouble at all following along as I read. This to me was the book’s best feature.