Childrens book about steam shovel

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First published in , during the Great Depression , it features Mike Mulligan, a steam shovel operator, and his steam shovel Mary Anne. It is considered a classic favorite of children's literature: based on a online poll, the National Education Association ranked the book as one of its "Teachers' Top Books for Children. After many years of working successfully together, Mike and his classic steam shovel Mary Anne face competition from more modern gasoline, electric, and diesel motor shovels. Seeking an area of the country where his classic steam shovel can still find work, Mike finds a small town that is about to build a new town hall. The authorities react with disbelief when Mike claims that he and his steam shovel Mary Anne can dig the cellar in a single day; they protest that it would take a hundred men a week.

Mike Mulligan, the operator of Mary Anne, his beloved steam-powered excavating machine, attempts to dig a cellar for the town hall of Popperville in a single day, in a last hurrah of obsolete steam technology. Everything goes well until spoiler! Problem solved. These three books were published over the course of about 15 years several decades ago, beginning in with Mike Mulligan , during a period of hefty economic and societal upheaval in America. As I returned to these worlds or in the case of Maybell e , experienced it for the first time , I noticed that they were engaging with the same ideas that are now constantly in the news: how people perceive and adapt to technological change, how workers deal with automation, and how machines are changing jobs. The changes depicted in these books are part of grander trends in the decades surrounding their publication, and broadly are the byproducts of the Industrial Revolution, from mechanization and urbanization to changes in energy sources.