Read Aloud Thursday is hosted at Hope is the Word. I forgot to add that last week!
Author: Virginia Lee Burton
Published: 1939
If I would have told my son that this book was published the year after his grandma was born, he probably would have thought I was crazy. After we read it, when I asked him what he liked the most about it, he started flipping through the book saying "this part, and this part, and this part" so I think he enjoyed it.
Mike has a steam shovel that he has named Mary Anne. He has worked with her for years and dug canals and helped build passages through mountains and airports. He has kept Mary Anne in really good condition. With the passage of time though comes innovation and soon there are gasoline, electric and Diesel shovels and no one wants to use Mary Anne anymore. They leave the city for the small town of Popperville, as they have heard they are building a new town hall. Mike makes them an offer that he and Mary Anne can dig the cellar in one day, and if they don't, then the town won't have to pay them.
Well, they don't think he can do it, so of course they take the bet. A little boy stops to watch and he invites more and more people throughout the day (because the more people are watching, the faster and better Mike and Mary Anne work). Now here comes my favorite part. They get the cellar built and here is the steam shovel and Mike down in the cellar - there is a good picture of this in the book - and my son says "How are they going to get out?" and I turn the page in the book and the little boy in the book says "How are they going to get out?" I looked at my son and asked him if he had heard this story before. He looked up with the childlike surprise and told me no. So I told him he must be the little boy in the story! (He liked that).
Well, rather than try to get Mary Anne out, they turn her into a furnace and Mike gets the job as janitor and they still get to spend every day together.
The book has some cute illustrations, also by Virginia Lee Burton. I especially like the sweet face on the steam shovel and some of her expressions!
Challenges: Excellence in Reading
