Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
Virginia Lee Burton · 2007
88/100
👍 Worth It
Virginia Lee Burton's 1939 classic still earns every star it gets — Mike and Mary Anne's race to dig the town hall cellar in a single day is genuinely suspenseful, and the ending is one of the most satisfying in all of picture-book literature. The NEA's Teachers' Top 100 designation reflects decades of classroom use, and the themes of loyalty, perseverance, and finding a new purpose land as powerfully now as they did 85 years ago. A board book format may soften Burton's crayon artwork slightly, but the story carries it.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety98
substance88
craft90
originality85
accuracy90
hype82
age-fit92
human-eye90
Penny’s verdict88
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