Virginia Lee Burton

When Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel, Mary Ann, lose their jobs to the gasoline, electric, and diesel motor shovels, they go to a little country town where they find that one new job leads to another.

Mike Mulligan proves that, although dated, his steam shovel is still useful.

Maybelle loves to carry people up and down the hilly streets of San Francisco, until the City Fathers decide that she should be taken out of service in the name of progress.

Corduroy longs for someone to take him home, but he searches for his missing button around the department store first. When the zookeeper leaves the door open, the happy lion decides to walk through town to visit his friends. Big diesel engines threaten to run Mike Mulligan and his old steam shovel, Mary Anne, out of business. A mother's love and a baby's smile bond the two together. Silly Auntie will try anything to get Baby to smile. Two owls discover...