Completely in the Dark

“NO STEAM SHOVELS WANTED”

It still hits me in the gut, decades later. And—like Mike Mulligan and his cherished Mary Anne—it, too, made me VERY SAD.

No children’s story affected me more than Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, a picture book first published in 1939, written and illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton. It was one of my first books, along with Mom’s childhood picture bookPeculiar Penguins (pictured with toddler me at bottom left), published in 1934. A Walt Disney “Silly Symphonies” edition, Penguins was my first “hand-me-down” story. Peter Penguin’s love for Polly, and his heroic battle to save their penguin community from a ferocious shark, delighted me.

But Mike and Mary Anne really got under my skin.

Mike loved Mary Anne, his steam shovel. He took care of her. For years they worked together, digging the world’s canals, highways, airports, and even railways through…