101 Books, Number 8

Favorite Books Throughout My Life

8: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, 1939, by Virginia Lee Burton (1909–68)

I loved this book—Mike Mulligan.

I read it often, just for fun.

I always felt a little thrill

There at the end when it was done.

An appetite is hard to fill

For readers who have climbed the hill

Of some book that they love. I know

The feeling that this is—the thrill.

The story went to yes from no—
A way I didn’t think to go. 

The shovel’s life just took a turn—

(Perhaps I was a little slow?)

Yes, he became a furnace. Burn!

And that is what he did to earn

His living then. And good Old Mike

Would really help the shovel learn.

So there are books I’d really like—

From childhood on, when just a tyke,

I read my books and rode my trike

And knew the writer bowled a strike!