By Craig Dorfman
A rhyming pep talk from the little blue engine of 'The Little Engine That Could,' who takes your child down the whole track ahead — the hills, the tunnels, and all. Given as a graduation or milestone gift far more than it's read at bedtime.
The little blue engine you know from 'The Little Engine That Could' is back, and this time it's talking straight to your child about the track their own life runs on. In an easy chugging rhyme, it walks them through the whole route: flat stretches that roll by easy, steep hills you have to strain up, dark tunnels where you can't see the far end yet, and forks where the engine leaves the choosing to you. There are low valleys too, and the engine says it's fine to stop and rest before the next climb. Whenever the track gets hard, it comes back around to the same line, that it knew you could. It's short, and it starts right where the first book left off.
The original comforted a small engine on a toy mountain; this one aims all that same reassurance at your child's real life. It doesn't pretend the track is all downhill. It names the tunnels and the tiring climbs first, then keeps circling back to you can do it and I knew it all along. That's usually the thing a parent or godparent wants to say at a milestone and struggles to put into words. The rhyme keeps it from turning heavy, and the front page is left blank for you to write the date and a few words by hand.