I was at Big Lots with my Dad last week and the two of us started to look through their children's books. I was skimming through the books, looking for one to catch my eye, and my dad excitedly pulled out a little red book and handed it to me. It was called Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. My dad began to tell me that it was one of his favorite books as a child, so I had to check it out.
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel is about a man who runs a steam shovel for a living. He is very proud of his work. Over the years, technology advances and his services are no longer in demand. While struggling to find work Mike and his steam shovel Marry Anne hear that the small town of Popperville needs a new town hall built. Mile and Marry Anne decide to go to Popperville and help the town. I don't want to give away the ending, but it does have an interesting twist at the end!
This book was written in 1939, so it has a different feel than a lot of newer books. It's illustrations are not flashy or computer generated. It is just an honest story about finding a place in the world for yourself, and the transition of old to new technology.
Here are some neat worksheets I found for grade levels K-3!
"The reproducible worksheets offer practice with various writing modes including prewriting strategies, math skills such as estimation, reading strategies, and dictionary, map, and diagramming skills."
Here's a video of a dad reading Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel to his son as a bed time story.
The first thing I would like to say is that i love how you discovered this book! It shows how parents continue to pass things down to their children that can benefit them in thier college years. This book looks like a great read. I would love to see how the ending turns out. I think this book teaches a great lesson on economy and how it is changing overtime. It would be great for young readers to learn that there is always new things to explore in the world. I checked out the link you posted and it did have some reaslly awesome ideas. I'm definitley going to keep an eye out for this book in my neighborhood big lots. Great theme idea, too.
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I really enjoyed hearing your book talk on this book. I was able to see the illustrations that you were talking about, and hear about the twist at the end. Its great to see the artwork that someone drew for the book instead of something someone made on a computer. I feel like this book could be used for any age group since it deals with economy, finding your place in the world, and transition. I also now know where to go look for inexpensive children's books. Great job!
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ReplyDeleteI thought it was really nice of you to read one of your dad’s favorite books. It is also really cool how you ended up liking it. I personally haven’t read the book but I think this is a really good book to read in the class room because it will show the students how things actually do change over time, and also give them an idea of how things use to be back then when all of this technology didn’t exist. I also liked how you provided a youtube link of the book, because now I can actually listen to it!
ReplyDeleteYour blog is really nice Bridget. You are going above the minimum and that is a great thing! I love that you embedded a video so we could hear someone reading it out loud.
ReplyDeleteHaving books that your dad is excited about is really cool!
This book was adorable! I love how your dad loved this book too. Also the little boy in the video was so cute! haha I think this is a great story for Albuquerque in particular because Albuquerque used to be a much more rural town and now it is expanding to a big city so i think this book shows the differences between those two types of towns very well!
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