Like many toddlers his age, my son loves trains. He enjoys taking train rides – local commuter lines are great for short trips. With CalTrain or BART, you can easily plan a ‘bounceback’ trip where you go to a station and switch to a train coming the other way after a short wait. We also have two picture books in heavy rotation currently...

Jamberry, story and pictures by Bruce Degen

This one combines trains with berries. The illustrations are wonderfully detailed and whimsical, and the poetry is catchy and fun. My son can pretty much recite most of the book already – which is a great confidence booster for developing early literacy skills.

Freight Train, story and pictures by Donald Crews

Kids can learn the colors and different names for freight with this concept book. Each freight train features bright colors, and the train moves through different scenery. My son finds some hardware to point out each time. I’ve also made a felt version of this story – contact me if you’d like a copy of the pattern!

What’s your toddler’s favorite train book? Please share in the comments.

Unstoppable

Train 777, half a mile long and carrying toxic chemicals, is headed toward a small town of Stanton, Pennsylvania at an accelerating speed. The train is unmanned and “unstoppable” because some worker thought he could jump off the train to switch the tracks and jump back on, but he was too slow to get back on. It is then up to veteran engineer Frank Barnes (Denzel Washington) and a young conductor (Chris Pine) to prevent a catastrophe by racing to catch this train before it reaches the city.

What is there not to like about this movie? You’ve got a high speed train loaded with toxic chemicals about to run into a town that will be completely destroyed if the train reaches it. I enjoyed this movie very much because you get to see the technical background of running a train station. This movie shows real shots of trains and explosions without computer-generated imagery (CGI). If you want an intense and suspenseful movie that will have you at the edge of your seat, check this movie out.