Receive Mike Mulligan And His Steam Shovel: Story And Pictures Illustrated By Virginia Lee Burton Disseminated As Script

sure it it's a "modern" classic, because many things in it will honestly not look very modern to youryear old, but it's definitely a classic.
And what little boy doesn't hold a fascination for any type of construction machine/vehicle, So, my little boy asked me to read the story about the Steam Shovel, the anthropomorphic Mary Ann, The first time I read it, while it's a sweet story, I was a little bummed myself about the ending, and felt somewhat let down.
As I read it again, it started making more sense to me, Also, we have this story in our collection, sitelinkThethCentury Children's Book Treasury, where often the pictures are condensed: When reading through it the first time, I was thinking that it would be nice to see the colorful pictures of Mike Mulligan and Mary Ann in bigger format, so we borrowed the original at the library.
Indeed, a number of the wonderful pictures were missing in the "Treasury" edition, so reading the book turned into a whole new, and much more pleasant experience.
The colorful illustrations, packed with detail, carry more than half the story, This book is a gem!

And, if you like Mike Mulligan, you may want to try another classic author sitelinkBill Peet's stories about sitelinkSmokey and sitelinkThe Caboose Who Got Loose.
Virginia Lee Burton is always a favorite, This was given to Hugh when he was born, a gift from friends of my husband's parents I only know/remember this because they inscribed the book, something I wish more people would do when they give books as gifts!, and up until that moment I had completely forgotten all about this story.
It came back to me quickly when I saw the distinctive illustrations and read the story again after all these years.
I read it quite a lot as a kid, I loved it so, It's a sad story, yet positive too,

First published in, it speaks to the change of eras, the death of the old and the celebration of shiny new things.
Mike Mulligan is a construction worker who, along with his steam shovel a steampowered excavator called Mary Anne, has dug canals, and cut through mountains for railways, and levelled hills for highways.
He's always been sure that Mary Anne "could dig as much in a day as a hundred men could dig in a week, but he had never been quite sure that this was true.
"

But then it gets harder to get new jobs because of "the new gasoline shovels and the new electric shovels and the new Diesel motor shovels" that were taking over.
Mike didn't want to sell Mary Anne for junk like all the other steam shovel drivers were dong, "Mike loved Mary Anne. He couldn't do that to her, " He had taken good care of her but no one wanted them anymore, Then they hear that the nearby town of Popperville was going to build a new town hall, so they head over and offer their services.
Mike makes a deal with one of the selectmen, that if they can dig the cellar in a day they get paid, but if they don't they won't.


Mike and Mary Anne start the next day as the sun is coming up, and they work super fast.
As more and more people gather to watch, Mary Anne digs faster and faster, They manage to dig the cellar in a day a job that would have taken a hundred men a week to do but then realise that there's no way to get Mary Anne out of the hole she's finished digging.
A little boy has a bright idea: why not leave her in the cellar and build the town hall above her "Let her be the furnace for the new town hall," he says.
So that's what they do, and Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne live in the cellar and everyone goes to visit them and tell stories.


Even as a kid I found this story sad, even a bit depressing, though I also loved it and kept coming back to it I may have been a girl, but I was more interested in cars and tractors and things like that, than dolls in fact, I had no interest in dolls at all, especially those horrid baby ones that wee when you feed them, I thought that was a useless, boring idea for a doll and I didn't like the way toy companies were trying to make my into a mummy at the age of four! Yes, I really did think that when I was little.
Even the illustrations ratchetup the nostalgia factor, not just because they'res style and the details clearly show that inbetweeneras problem, with cars alongside horsedrawn wagons, but because the picture of the town hall being built above Mary Anne and Mike Mulligan looks an awful lot like a prison.
Or a cage. Or a museum exhibit. Perhaps the latter, and intentionally so,

There's a lot of text to this story, but twoyearolds can sit through it prepare to be interrupted by a lot of questions that are hard to answer, though!.
Older kids, kindergarten age and older, would get more out of the story but there's lots here for younger ones to enjoy too.
Bit too long and involved for the attention span of a kid younger than two though, A children's book that still kicks major ass well into adulthood! A wonderful children's book with a hint of steampunk.
I would like it made into a movie as the Peanuts and Dr, Seuss stories were. Shows great problem solving. I have never been very interested in cars, trucks, steam shovels or other machines, But this is a perfect book for a little boy or girl who loves them, I just read this one for the very first time today at the request/brute forcing of a coworker.


So Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel, which has eyelashes TO DIE FOR, dig a big hole, but they get so whipped up in digging the hole that the steam shovel is stuck inside.
They come up with a solution of sorts, I won't spoil it here, but let me just say that although it's clever, it's poor practice to rely on cleverness to alleviate the problems of poor planning.


Mike Mulligan is a classic children's book character: The Crammer, Remember that story about the grasshopper and the ant The story where one of them is preparing for winter while the other one is just screwing around I'm guessing it was the grasshopper who was screwing around.
Ants seem pretty industrious while grasshoppers have no occupation other than jumping directly into your face, And some of them can fly, sort of What the hell

Anyway, that grasshopper was the classic Crammer who learns a lesson about not doing all his work at the last minute.


Mike Mulligan is like that too, He decides that the answer to his problem is to do a week's worth in one day, He's so confident he'll finish that he stakes his entire wage for the job on it,

It's weird because the book makes it seem that if he pulls off this one job, everything will be great.
If he doesn't, he'll be screwed, But it's one day of work, If your financial life rides on one work day, you should probably spend less time steamshoveling and making steamshovelrelated bets and spend more time MAKING MONEY.


As much as Mike Mulligan is a classic character, there's an even more popular children's character in this book: The Unmitigated Asshole.


Henry B. Swap is just a real ass the entire time for no apparent reason, He's always sneering, and he balks at the idea of a steam shovel, Some guy shows up to my town and says he'll dig a foundation in a day, what do I care if he uses a steam shovel He could use enslaved orphans who are using the corpses of other orphans as shovels if he can get it done inhours.
That's really none of my business,

Also, like most UA's in these books, Henry B, Swap comes

around at the end, I guess these guys, these unlovable curmudgeons, just need a light miracle to bring them around to being nice for a change.
I mean, sure, he spentyears drinking himself to oblivion, has been a rude butthole to every person he's ever met, and once he even hit a transient who was trying to hitchhike.
And though Henry B. Swap issure that the transient did not survive that impact, all it took was a steam shovel doing an honest day's work to really turn things around for him.


On the plus, I did find this:
sitelink youtube. com/watchvZR

"But then came a grotesque parade of new shovels, . . " Classic. Growing up in the Midwest in thes, this book got a lot of attention at schools and libraries.
It was used as a readaloud by teachers who wanted to show us that hard work gets you what you want, and of course Mike had to go to smalltown USA to find a good home for himself and his shovel.
Burton's books also get a passing reference in sitelinkBeezus and Ramona not by title, but if you've read them you recognise the reference.


Rereading it today, I still love the illustrations and the way the text is woven into them.
But I also found it interesting that Mike works "faster and better" when he has an audience, . . and the more audience he has the better he works! Not the lesson my teachers wanted to ingrain in us, I'm sure.
He also missed Mrs Beaman's repeated advice to "plan ahead before you get started and make sure you have everything you need!" And that was in second grade, folks!

If you like books by authors such as sitelinkRobert McCloskey you'll enjoy this.
Small children might find it a good readaloud, though they won't know what a steamshovel is or how it could be converted into a boiler.
My father was in plumbing and heating, and he couldn't figure that one out either, One of the wonderful things about working in a library is that you never know when you're going to see some old friends.
Yesterday I found them in the children's section, Every shelf had books that I had loved when I was a kid! It made me smile to see them again.


But I paused when I found "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, " This is a classic children's book that was originally published in, I think I first read it during a visit to my grandparents' house, and it brought up some bittersweet memories.


It's the story of a construction worker named Mike, who names his steam shovel Mary Anne, The two work well together, digging canals, making tunnels in the mountains, cutting through hills to make highways, But soon no one wants a steam shovel anymore Mike and Mary Anne had been replaced by diesel and electric motors.


Mike is determined to find work, and he tells the city leaders he can dig the cellar for their new town hall in just one day.
They dig fast and a crowd gathers to watch, They dig all day, and when they're done, they find themselves stuck in the hole they've made, A child standing nearby has an idea for how to save Mike and Mary Anne, and the book closes on a happy note.


The crayon drawings in this book are delightful, and it has an oldschool charm that is hard to resist.
Highly recommended. Featured in grandma reads session,

I love all of Virginia Lee Burton's books! Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel was published inand was not just one of my favorites, it was one of my Dad's when he was a tot! Burton wrote the story and with her handy crayons did the illustrations also.
Talented lady.

Others of hers that are less well known are: Maybelle a cable car The Little House Life Story the story of life on earth from its beginning up to now as understood by VL Burton Choo Choo the story of a little engine who ran away Calico the wonder horse or The Saga of Stewy Stinker and Katy and the Big Snow a versatile tractor who bulldozes in fair weather and snowplows in foul weather.
Check them out my crew loved hearing about the connection to their beloved great grampy, Many of the books I read are from my past and are my family's favorites, I know kids are going to find the books they want to read and read them which is wonderful.
All have different tastes. But no one can show them the pasts of me and my family better than me since very few now remain and the books families read to each other in their most intimate and private times end of day, around the fire, settling in for the safe space families create for each other when they sleep that's a feeling I can summon up with the real books we read and which were read to us.
The pandemic has been awful, but there are a few lessons it teaches that are worth embracing,

Wherever you are Virginia Lee Burton, I hope you know we love your books and your efforts to get them out in the wide world of readers!

stars.
For Mike, Mary Anne and all the townspeople, . .

If I rated this based on my childhood memories, this would merit one or two, Books that focused on machinery including trains never had any appeal to me, I would bet that I didn't like the eyes on Mary Ann's scoop, I didn't like animals that dressed up and acted like humans, so I'm sure the eyes bothered me,

I do know that I didn't like the destruction this machine ruined hills and meadows, That was as painful to me as a child as it is now, And, I'm sure it seemed silly to me that a steam shovel could become a furnace,

Despite those drawbacks, I can now see why this appeals to some many children, I have never forgotten this marvelous children's book that I read and reread many times when I was quite young.
I just reread this cherished story again, Virginia Lee Burtons Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel is and always will be one of the greatest childrens books ever written!stars! One of my favorite books when I was growing up, and it was also one of the saddest stories I read growing up too.
Mike Mulligan has been my most favorite book ever since I was in grade school, There was no other book that thrilled me like this one, I loved the illustrations, I can still see that last picture and it still warms my heart, Everyone should read this. My sister and I discussed this book and the fond memories of it on our birthday cruise,

I guess the cool nights reminded us of the Steam Shovel, .