Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

What an odd story about obsolescence and repurposing! Riffing off the legend of John Henry, a steam shovel operator wagers that he can completely dig a building foundation in a day with his outdated equipment or he won't get paid. Somehow the whole town gets caught up in this race against time and circle the growing hole to watch.

The cadence of the story is weird, but lends itself to some equally weird experimentation when reading it aloud. Today I tried reading the whole thing as a boxing announcer. The anthropomorphized face on the steam shovel seems out of place and unnecessary, but sure, why not.

For me, the best part is the asterisk near the end of the story where the author acknowledges the little boy next door who came up with an show more ending when she literally wrote herself into a corner. How candid and considerate. show less

This was tonight's bed-time story chosen by my youngest, who is four years old. We were given this book (along with others, none of which I had come across before, but which their kids had grown up with) by friends of ours now based outside Chicago, when I was expecting my eldest. It was a great present, and we still have all the books, albeit a bit battered.

Mike Mulligan has a steam shovel whom he loves, and has named Mary Ann. Together they have dug canals, levelled hills for highways and dug basements for skyscrapers across the country. Unfortunately, steam shovels are being superseded by electric and diesel shovels, so Mike and Mary Ann can't find work. Mike has always boasted that Mary Ann could dig as much in a day as a hundred show more men could dig in a week ... but he's never been quite sure. He finds one last opportunity for Mary Ann and him to work, and gets the chance to test his boast.

This is a charming tale for young children, with some suspense as Mike and Mary Ann race the sun to finish their job, and we see if Mike can get out of the hole he's dug for himself. I like it for a bedtime story as there's a lot of repetition, which forms a soothing rhythm, but the illustrations are also good as discussion points and a glimpse into a bygone era. And I like the ending and the solution to the problem, as well as the way Henry B. Swap turns out.

Judging it (necessarily) as a children's book: 4.5 stars. show less

As of this review, the book is 80 years old! It's saddening to me to see this book doesn't get discussed much today as a children's book, because damn, this book is a classic. Great illustrations, a wonderful story, and a great way to capture the spirit of the era (late 1930's) I can not recommend this enough to share this book with a child - whether your own or someone else's.

A+++

Deserves to be a classic. I loved it as a child, and loved reading it to my children. The race against time, and the satisfying twist at the end, make it a winner even now.

I did not encounter this book as a child. The first I ever heard of it was when I watched and very much enjoyed the satirical "Werner Herzog" reading of the book on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z1R5vDG2Tg). I thought I would take a look at this book because it is about the era of coal burning external combustion steam engines, in the same way as "The Travels of Babar" is about the era of free air ballooning.

This book was published in 1939. I believe that it is based on the observations of the author, who saw that the coal-fired steam engines were declining, while diesel and gas were on the rise. It is a piece of period fiction now, describing machines that were common then, but that contemporary children will likely never show more get to see, since the heavy earth movers of that past have been modified tremendously, incorporating one new technology after another.

The book is supposed to have some kind of moral, but I wasn't really interested in the moral. I wanted to know more about the steam shovel, which is a fascinating piece of technology. The end papers show a diagram of the steam shovel that is the hero of the book, and it is quite accurate as far as it goes. Since the steam shovel burns coal there is a coal bunker, with the same function as a gas tank only much bigger, and a smokestack. The steam shovel can travel on caterpillar treads, and can rotate on its turntable. For digging it has a fascinating apparatus, driven solely by pulleys; there is no hydraulic mechanism as with the modern backhoe. A video on YouTube shows one of these extraordinary machines in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJEin7oVajQ. You have to see it to believe it. In actual operation this machine would have required not just the operator, the Mike Mulligan of the title, but a stoker as well, to keep the steam up.

The early part of the book describes the steam shovel's many triumphs: it helps dig a canal, and cut through mountains for railroads. The ships and locomotives are just like it; coal burning and steam driven. Time passes and it helps build highways and level fields for airports. The planes are small and propeller driven, the hangars tiny. These new machines do not burn coal, though, and they are harbingers of things to come. The shovel carries on. It digs deep, to lay the foundations for skyscrapers. And then, shovels driven by gas and diesel engines, which are so much more efficient and convenient, and perhaps powerful, but otherwise no different in their operation, are introduced, and it can not compete.

It flees to the country, where it does one last dig, and ends its days rather usefully, sending hot water to the radiators in the town hall, as far as I can tell. In the country it meets an exciting variety of soon to be obsolete vehicles and customs, including a horse-drawn milk wagon going on its daily rounds delivering milk, and a horse drawn fire-engine, with a steam driven pump. It should fit right in. show less

I attribute my love for the traditional and old-fashioned to this book. This is also the book that made me realize I was going to have to avoid deconstructing my childhood reading selections if I wanted to remain sane. Please, no one ask me about the implications of Irish-American labor force in rural and suburban America in this sweet little book.

Damn yous, technological advancements! Your fancy electric and gasoline steam shovels! Ah, but our old friend makes one feel right at home in the end, eh? One of those fun books one reads as a kid, or as an adult to a child, or both.