I grew up with Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne, and I have lots of company, including my own children. It's a book that encourages the reader to imagine an author as some aged, retiring, nostalgia-soaked children's book author, but Virginia Lee Burton is something else entirely. Today, I'm setting aside the usual eduranting to look at this extraordinary American author.
I don't remember the books but I do remember the little house that had a big city grow up around it and I also remember a steam shovel that dug a basement but left no exit ramp and became a heating system. Are those these books?
Thanks for this story, Peter. I've loved her books since I was a child, and "Mike Mulligan" was the one book both of my children would ask for and listen to all the way through, even into their tweens. I used to read it now and then in the oral interpretation of literature class I taught to community college students, and they always enjoyed it as well.
I appreciate learning more about her background, she sounds like she was a fascinating person. You mentioned a few of her books I've not read so I'll be looking those up in the new year.
I don't remember the books but I do remember the little house that had a big city grow up around it and I also remember a steam shovel that dug a basement but left no exit ramp and became a heating system. Are those these books?
They are indeed
Thanks for this story, Peter. I've loved her books since I was a child, and "Mike Mulligan" was the one book both of my children would ask for and listen to all the way through, even into their tweens. I used to read it now and then in the oral interpretation of literature class I taught to community college students, and they always enjoyed it as well.
I appreciate learning more about her background, she sounds like she was a fascinating person. You mentioned a few of her books I've not read so I'll be looking those up in the new year.
Happy new year.