Children’s book about a train. Published 1960-70s. Rhythmic/rhyming book with verse” Clickety clack, clickety clack…..train going (a)’roud the track” It is NOT the book by Amy and Rob Spence. It was definitely published before I was born in 1978.
Additional Details: Approximate number of pages are less than 15; the colors within the book are reds/yellows. The verses were very rhythmic…you could almost sing them. It is also NOT the “Little Engine That Could” book.
Is it “Train Coming”? by Betty Ren Wright, illustrated by Florian Copyright MCMLIV
It’s a small book, greens and reds and yellows predominate the illustrations and the cover is green with a train on it.
The character train/driver is called Joe. Listen, Hear his whistle blow.
This is the shiny, silvery track that Joe must follow to town and back. The book ends with, “and the only sound for miles around is a far off Oooooo”
Thanks for the suggestion but unfortunately, no, “Train Coming” is not the book I’m looking for. There are no verses that contain the phrase “clickety clack, clickety clack” in that book.
Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately, the book I’m looking for is not “Train Coming.” I am certain the book I’m looking for contains the verse “Clickety, clack, clickety clack.” Thanks!
Try The Train to Timbuctoo by Margaret Wise Brown.
“Clackety clack clackety clack
There was a big train
And clickety click clickety click clickety click
There was a little train”
or
Two Little Trains, also by Margaret Wise Brown
“Two little trains went down the track, two little trains to the west”
This was actually sung by Burl Ives, as well as being a book.
Thanks for the suggestion but sadly the book I’m looking for is not the Train to Timbucktoo. I listened to it via a YouTube recording to verify. Thanks!
Is it THE HUFFIN PUFF EXPRESS (A Golden Tell-a-Tale book)?
On Amazon it shows two copies of the book, same publication date (1974) with completely different authors. David L. Harrison and Art Seiden (ill.?)
and Mariellen Hanrahan and James Seward (ill.?)
The book is about 8″ square, has a yellow background, a red engine with a black and gray front, and smoke streaming back (although it looks like a diesel engine to me) not a locomotive. I have scanned the cover, but can’t seem to post it here.
It may very well be this book! The Huffin Puff Express! But I’ve searched and searched and can’t find any verses (text or audio) to verify. Do you know where I may find or listen to a verse or two to confirm?
The Huffin Puff Express book is on Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/huffinpuffexpres00harr
It’s a free online library. You would need to sign up for an account to borrow books, but there are no fees. You can borrow books for 14 days.
It may very well be The Huffin Puff Express! Is there anywhere I can find or listen to a verse to two to confirm? I found no audio recording on YouTube etc.
133E could possibly involve the poem, “Song of the Train” by David McOrd, which begins:
Clickety-clack,
Wheels on the track,
This is the way
They begin the attack:
Click-ety-clack,
Click-ety-clack,
Click-ety, clack-ety,
Click-ety
Clack.
I don’t know what book might have had it, though.
I bought a copy of The Huffin Puff express book and am 90% sure it is the book I was looking for. But if anyone has any other suggestions please leave a reply. Thanks to all who replied thus far!!
The book is Animal Train, a Tell a Tale by Merrigold Press, and I have a copy for sale in my [edited] shop if you are interested!
Some inside pages of The Animal Train here:
http://static.booktopia.com.au/pdf/9781743524336-1.pdf
I too am looking for the book you referenced above. I was born in 1970 and looking for the same book. My Mom says the book had “little black running down the track, clickety clack clickety clack” and in the book there is a cow trying to get on the track it says “stand back stand back.” It is not the books referenced above. Anymore ideas?
I think this is the one I have! I’ll try to remember to look when I get home and write back.
What is this book? “little black running down the track, clickety clack clickety clack” and in the book there is a cow trying to get on the track it says “stand back stand back.”
It’s called Whistle for the Train by Leonardo Weisgard.
It’s from 1954. My Grandmother read it to me when I was a little girl.
A little black train comes down the track. Toot! Stand back, stand back while the little black train goes down the track, blows its whistle, then clickety clack, clickety clack.
I am so glad I came across this! I have been looking for this book tittle for years! My grandmother who passed away had this book when I was little and I would read it ever time I visited. All I could remember was that it was a a blue hardcover book and the illustrations were black and white and a line that said “the train goes down the track, clickety-clack, clickety-clack.” When I read “stand back, stand back” I literally yelled out loud, “that’s it!” Lol and sure enough when I searched the tittle it was, in fact the book I had been searching for. Even though you may not have helped the OP, you helped me, so thank you so much!
So happy to find this title…my family loved this book but it was lost in a fire. My great grandson Wyatt is turning two and loves trains so this would be an instant favoroite. MWB has always been close to my heart…since I was a Young Scott author, the small publishing house where she began her career.
Did you ever find this book? I had been looking for it as well. I recall the book had a giraffe in the caboose that had to duck down going through any tunnels. It was a train full of animals. I looked at the link for “Animal Train” and I don;t think that is it, but very similar, or maybe I had an older version of the book when I was a child.
I am looking for a similar book that had similar phrases:
“Yellow taxis in a row, they’ll take us where we want to go”, or
“Big shiny trains go clickety clack as they hurry by on the railway track”, or
“Busses and trucks carry people too, there’s room for a lot or just a few”.
Anyone remember this children’s book?
None of these seem like the book I want. I read it to my kids in the early 60’s. Started this is a train named Joe. Listen and hear his whistle blow. Who whoo. With a clickety clickety clack going down the track. Wish I could find it. It’s not Train Coming. I bought that one but not the same.
Mary, I think you want Train Coming! by Betty Ren Wright. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6087190-train-coming
Did anyone every figure out this book? I am looking for it too! It is not any of the books listed above, except possibly The Huffin Puff, but I need to read the story. I am thinking it is not this story, as my Mom read it to me when I was little and it appears this book was written in 1974.
I think the book you are looking for might be The Little Red Caboose, written in 1953 by Marian Potter. It’s a Little Golden Book Classic. Our grandson loves the Clickety Clack.
I’m looking for it too. This sounds like the right one. The little black train goes down the track, clickety clack, clickety clack. Blows its whistle, whoo whoo, stay back, stay back, as the little black train goes down the track. My grandkids loved.
*my comment was in reply to Megan.
Cinder, this might be the book you were looking for as well. Whistle For The Train by Golden MacDonald.
I found it!
Train Songs by Diane Siebert.
I so vividly remember it from my childhood and y’all’s posts jogged the ole noggin enough to help me remember (in time for my own son’s birth!)
https://www.biblio.com/book/train-songs-diane-siebert/d/257044079
The Huffin Puff Express says things like “Puff puff”, “Pillow clouds of steam”. I got the book as a child and have it stored in a plastic box