It has colourful illustrations in a cartoonish style, and is associated with the Walt Disney corporation. This is a 'Little Golden Book' a series which was very popular in the USA and Australia. Tootle is the American version, from 1945.

Awdry, much smaller books which also followed the adventures of various small locomotives of different colours, with faces. They were contemporary with the early 'Thomas the Tank Engine books' by the Rev. Tootle reminds me of 'The Little Blue Engine Stories' by Ursula Hourihane, published in Great Britain shortly after World War Two. (which probably says a lot in itself about the content)It may be a bit much (okay it IS)but, as a mother has read this story as many times as I have this one,(sometimes as many as three times in one night, and it is, for a bedtime story a long one)over a 3 year period,well it drives one to pick it apart.Īnd yes, I do tell my four year old that Tootle should be allowed paid holidays in which to view the meadow he so adored,as well as a new set of buffers every six months. There.Finally my brief critical analysis of a Golden book designed for children some 40-50 years ago. Tootle, you're a flyer train- you know your place-now get back to work! And after being tricked by the entire township- he does.

Work and strict obediance to rules over quiet reflection. Yes, a children's book that touts the importance of the coal blackned lungs of the Industrial Revoultion in place of the Romantic reverance of nature. But Bill, head engineer of the School for Engines and 'The Mayor Himself' taught you that it was foolish for an engine to get lost looking at hollyhock flowers when he could be the fastest flyer since 'old 300'. He died in 1978.Tootle,Tootle, all you wanted to do was 'dip and soar' like the butterflies you admired in the meadow of Lower Trainswitch. He brought to life many classic and beloved LGB characters including Tootle, the Little Red Caboose, and Scuffy the Tugboat. Tibor Gergely, who was born in Hungary in 1900 and emigrated to the US in 1939, was one of the most prolific of the early Little Golden Books illustrators.

Crampton was born in New York in 1909, and received her teaching credentials from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Gertrude Crampton wrote the classic Little Golden Books Tootle (published in 1945) and Scuffy the Tugboat (published in 1946), which are two of the bestselling English-language hardcover children's books of all time.

Tootle golden book 1945