Top 100 Picture Books Poll Results (#40-36)

#40: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton (1939)
36 points (9 votes #4, #7, #3, #4, #10, #7, #8, #10, #10)

Because Ramona loved it, too. – Sherry Early

It is the little kid in me voting for this. As an adult, I have no idea if the book is good. As a child I LOVED it. And the thoughts of children ought to count for something in the world of children’s lit, shouldn’t they? – Jim Averbeck

Mike Mulligan and Mary Ann, you two had me plumb scared.  Honestly I’d set this duo up as goners pretty early in.  A week goes by in the voting.  No votes for Mike Mulligan.  A second week goes by in the voting.  No votes for Mike Mulligan.  By that point I’m chewing on my fingernails.  Could it be?  Could a Top 100 List of Picture Books really exist without Mike and his steam shovel extraordinaire?  The thought seemed inconceivable and, as we can see right here, inconceivable it was.

The creation of this book is actually a bit of a hoot.  According to 100 Best Books for Children, Virginia Lee Burton’s first attempt at writing a picture book was a story about a dust bunny called, and I am not making this up, The Trials and Trails of Jonnifer Lint.  I hereby challenge some author, somewhere, to write this book.  Because, you see, there wasn’t a soul out there who wanted to buy it.  What they did want to buy was Mike Mulligan.  Burton had troubles with the ending but when a boy named (again, not making this up) Dickie Berkenbush suggested they stay in the basement, Burton dug that crazy jazz ending.

Of course, the strange thing about this story is that it’s essentially a tale about a pretty incompetent guy.  What kind of construction worker digs himself into a hole he can’t get out of?  Plus Sherry Early is playing with fire mentioning Ramona since I would wager that few of us can read this story anymore and not wonder, as Ramona did, how Mike Mulligan was able to use the bathroom in his basement hole.  But as my husband pointed out to me, that probably cemented Mike Mulligan‘s presence in the children’s picture book canon.  But at what cost, man, WHAT COST!?

There’s a nice publisher website for the book which includes interesting proof that Virginia Lee Burton was, and I mean this sincerely, kinda smokin‘.

The New Yorker said of it, "This is fun both in its text and gay crayon drawings. Mike Mulligan remains faithful to his steam shovel, Mary Anne, against the threat of the new gas and Diesel-engine contraptions and digs his way to a surprising and happy ending."

Love the repetition, the soothing color palette, and the build up of tension as everyone falls asleep on that bed. – Brenda Ferber

Still among the best picture book teams of all time, Audrey and Don Wood have created more than one classic. They are widely known for this cumulative tale, The Napping House, in which a slumbering pile of pets and people are galvanized into motion by the smallest of visitors. – Kathryn Coombs

This book is also sometimes known as The Cumulative Tale That Actually Works.  I think it was on the post about Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears that someone mentioned that it was the rare House That Jack Built book that doesn’t make you want to rip out your hair by the roots.  The Woods’ use of light to convey the gloomy nap-worthy rainy weather and the later sun-shiny wide-awake beams, are worth the price of admission alone.  And what other book portrays the joys of bouncing on the bed quite as well as this?  You might be able to make a case for Hop on Pop, but I sayeth unto you, nay.  Nay and not hardly.

Amazon described the plot as, "With their very own brand of humor, Audrey Wood and Don Wood create an appealing bedtime book compatible with Margaret Wise Brown’s classic Goodnight Moon. This small, square board book, with its rhythmic, repetitive text and witty pictures in shades of ever-brightening blues and greens (as the night turns to day), is sure to be a winner with preschool insomniacs. The sleepy household congregates on Granny’s bed, slowly building a very relaxed pile of bodies in shifting positions. Young readers will enjoy tracking the critters as they make their way, one by one, to the bed–and then guessing what will happen when the wakeful flea joins the heap."

Some of you may have noticed that I used an unusual cover design for the introduction of this book.  I have absolutely no idea what the difference between that image and the one featured right here is:

One of the few picture books I remember reading as a child. I think one thing that attracted me was the cover with the two dogs, black and white opposites of each other. – Kara Dean

Childhood favorite and one that I just consider a pretty much perfect picture book story – Michelle Knudsen

All together!  I’m just wild about Harry, and Harry’s wild about meeeeee…

Truth be told, Harry probably doesn’t care diddly over squat for me, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t love him just the same.  Far more than merely the author who keeps getting shelved next to Charlotte Zolotow on our library shelves, Gene Zion and his wife Margaret Bloy Graham created an oddly iconic figure in the mischievous little pup that manages to get himself into and out of trouble in a particularly 1950s kinda way.  He was the canine Dennis the Menace of his generation, sans the cutesy bon mots.

Children’s Literature described the plot as, "Harry is a most lovable black and white dog who has a whole range of adventures when he leaves his happy home in order to avoid getting a bath. He romps with the men repairing the street, in the railroad yard, and plays tag with other dogs. Each episode results in him getting dirtier and dirtier so that when he does return home, his family thinks he is a stray dog. Now Harry faces the task of getting his owners to recognize him as their pet. After several unsuccessful attempts, Harry digs up the scrubbing brush and takes it upstairs to the tub. The soapy bath reveals Harry to the family and he once again becomes ‘a white dog with black spots’."

Married couples abound in creating children’s picture books and these two are no exception.  According to 100 Best Books for Children (yes, I quote it a lot and yes, there is a reason for that), Graham met Margret and Hans Rey of Curious George fame (it’s all connected) and was encouraged to put together an art portfolio.  She did, Zion wrote the tales, and the rest is history.

Simply the smartest, funniest book in the universe.  Eloise was the first hipster I ever knew. – Laurel Snyder

I received other quotes for Eloise, but that one was my favorite.

I didn’t know Eloise as a child.  And when I say, "I didn’t know" I’m not talking about one of those cases where you are vaguely aware of a character, like Peter from The Snowy Day or Max from Where the Wild Things Are.  No, honestly, I’d never laid eyes on the character.  I was from Michigan!  We don’t have plazas in Kalamazoo.  There may be high tea, but heaven only knows where.  Somehow I managed to continue this ignorance well into adulthood, until one day I ran across a baffling New Yorker cartoon.  It was by Roz Chast and was called "Eloise Revisited". If I’m not too much mistaken she’s sitting on the bed saying, "I am Eloise.  I am forty-six.  I still live in the Plaza.  I don’t give a damn who owns it."  This came in 1995 during the height of the Plaza selling that was going on.

I’ve heard many an . . . interesting story about Eloise’s creator.  Say what you will about her, though, she knew how to take a picture.  Here she is posing the portrait of Eloise that hangs in the Plaza.

Ursula Nordstrom had hoped to publish Eloise Takes a Bawth with Thompson but it never happened in her lifetime.  Thompson’s either, come to think of it.  That Hilary Knight has some kind of longevity.  In Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom there is a rather fun letter to Louise Fitzhugh from October 15, 1969 worth telling a bit of here.  Ursula writes to Louise, "I am told that another librarian turned to Kay Thompson (we are doing the next Eloise if it ever gets finished) and burbled, ‘Oh I love your Harriet books.’ Silence and the Titanic could crash and sink in seconds.  The librarian went on: ‘Your wonderful books about Harriet and the Plaza’."  Marvelous.

For my daughter (age 25). She loved this story for its play on fairy tales and rollicking silliness. She liked being ‘in’ on the joke and was never a happily-ever-after sort of gal. She read it into teen-dom and, in fact, may still be reading it while attending veterinary med. school. – Cheryl Tasses

Subversive, innovative, hilarious storytelling with a ground-breaking seamless design cover-to-cover that makes you want to re-read it again and again to see something new every time- which you will. That’s a perfect picture book. – Boni Ashburn

So there you go.  They said it best.  Don’t know that I’ve much more to add to their praise.  I think my encapsulation of The Stinky Cheese Man is best said by people other than myself.  Read this Jon Scieszka article from the Horn Book about design for starters. 

Booklist was a little more positive with its, "Every part of the book bears the loving, goofy stamp of its creators, and while their humor won’t appeal to everyone, their endeavors will still attract a hefty following of readers–from 9 to 99."

Kirkus liked it a bit more still: "Parodic humor here runs riot…irrepressibly zany fun!" (parodic?)