Mike's House! Man, you gotta admire the tenacity of a four year old who braves a snowstorm just to make it to his weekly Public Library Picture Book Hour.
Julia Sauer (1891-1983) was a Children's Librarian at the Rochester, NY, Public Library from 1921 to 1958. She wrote this little tribute to the power of books and stories back in 1954, with illustrations by our man Don Freeman, he of Corduroy fame.
Now, you might think Mike is the kid trudging through the snow ... no, this little dude loves Virginia Lee Burton's Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel so much that he refers to the library as "Mike's House". This leads to confusion later in the story when Robert, during his snowy trek to the library, gets a little sidetracked and has to ask a cop for directions. After the policeman unsuccessfully tries to find a "Mike Mulligan" in the phone book, a waitress at the diner realizes Robert's talking about the Public Library. Hey, Robert may have missed this week's Picture Book Hour, but he's thrilled to the gills that he'll get to introduce Officer Jensen to Mike Mulligan!
Libraries rock, Preschoolers rock, and Preschoolers who love their library this much really rock!
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Hooooz Howwsss?
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1 comment:
Amazing.
I *work* at a public library in Rochester, and I'd never even heard of this book. Here it is on my shelves even. Thanks for alerting me to it -- funny and a little inspiring. :)
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