Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #227672 in Books
• Published on: 1977-10-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .37 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 48 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel Mary Anne make quite a team. The inseparable duo digs the great canals for the big boats to travel through, cuts through the large mountains so that the trains could pass and hollows out the deep cellars for the great skyscrapers in the city. But the introduction of gasoline, electric and diesel shovels means big trouble for Mike and Mary Anne. No one wants an old-fashioned steam shovel like Mary Anne when a modern shovel can do the digging in half the time! Forced to travel far out of the city to look for work, Mike and Mary Anne find themselves in the little town of Popperville. Mike and Mary Anne make a bid to dig the cellar for the new town hall, promising the town that if they can't dig the cellar in just one day then no payment for the job is required. Will Mike and Mary Anne be able to complete the job? The whole town of Popperville turns out to watch. Virginia Lee Burton, author of such classic children's books as The Little House and Katy and the Big Snow, offers a touching portrait of love and dedication while commenting on the modernization that continuously shapes our lives. Hamilton's wonderful crayon drawings bring Mike and the indomitable Mary Anne to life.

Synopsis
Mike Mulligan proves that, although dated, his steam shovel is still useful.

Customer Reviews

A classic story with warm, active pictures
The cover of this book is the same as my old, dog-eared copy from my childhood 30 years ago. A Caldecott Award winner, the pictures drive the tale as much as the plot. An excellent book from cover-to-cover.

Re-reading it now brings back great memories and fascination of how Mike Mulligan and his beloved steam shovel worked hard to accomplish a fantastic task. Whenever people watched them dig, they always worked a little better and a little faster.

A modern John Henry, Mike faces the challenge of new technology. Undaunted, like the famous hammer-driving tall tale hero, he struggles to meet the task. Can he dig a hole faster than the new machine? Can he and his mighty red-metal friend do it by the end of the day?

A great story of perseverence and hard work, I fully recommend "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel." Place it on your shelf next to "Make Way for Dcklings" and "Where the Wild Things Are."

Anthony Trendl

Can Mike Mulligan & Mary Anne dig a cellar in just one day?
In the 19th-century it was the story of John Henry the steel-driving man who lost a race to a machine. In the 20th-century a slightly different lesson was offered up in Virginia Lee Burton's children's classic "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel." The Steam Shovel in question is named Mary Anne and all you have to do is see the glint in her eye and the smile on her "lips" to know that she is special. Unfortunately, there are new gasoline shovels and new electric shovels and even shovels with diesel motors, and there is little left for an old steam shovel to do. ... The illustrations from this 1939 classic are charming and quaint, but that is the nature of this tale and even in the 21st-century where atomic shovels may be around the corner, there is still a valuable lesson to be learned from "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel" about how doing a job well means you will always find a place in the world.

My Favourite childhood book - a treasure!
I was born in 1961 and this is the one book I remember from my childhood in the 60's. It is a simple story of a steam shovel that digs a basement for a building and forgets to leave a route out, so finally becomes the boiler for the heating system. All that is from memory - 30+ years ago!! Whilst I was oblivious to the flower power revolution going on all around me and bored with the beatles all the time, I could read this book over and over again. I am glad to be able to find it now via Amazon and am buying it for my children to read (and me!). I just hope they get as much pleasure as I did.