Meet Virginia Lee Burton, A Favorite Children's Books Author

Dear Mama, if it is difficult for you to find wholesome, engaging books for young boys, look no further. Virginia Lee Burton to the rescue!

Virginia Lee Burton’s children’s books are just the thing to acquaint boys and girls (but especially boys) with the wonderful world of books.

And her books seem to not have an set age range…even older boys and every adult I know who has read one becomes engrossed in the pathos of the story and detailed illustrations!

Print this booklist before going to the library!

“I am a part of everything that I have read.” ~Theodore Roosevelt

Virginia Lee Burton

Virginia Lee Burton is best remembered as a Caldecott award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books. Her memorable characters, still ‘alive’ in our grown children’s imaginations, make her one of our very favorite children’s book authors.

Virginia was born in 1909. She won the prestigious Caldecott Medal for The Little House in 1943, and her illustrations for Song of Robin Hood (1948) found a spot on the Caldecott Honor list.

Burton’s themes take us back to a simpler life. She pays tribute to heroes who persevere through difficulties with goodness and strength of character.

Burton specializes in bringing the inanimate to life with her vibrant and detailed drawings and stories of courage and vulnerability. The beauty of the her stories is that they are simple, yet deep and complicated at the same time.

One biographer wrote, “Virginia Lee Burton believed in trying to give children what they like and want. The popular children’s book author always wrote and illustrated her books in collaboration with her two sons and their friends; if something didn’t appeal to them it would be changed. In this way her books were created and became classics of children’s literature.”

It is true that her books captivate boys. Trains! Trucks! Tractors! Cable cars and Steam Shovels and Diesel Engines and Bulldozers! Every young boy’s dream. But in truth, everyone (girls included) from toddlers to grandparents are drawn into the oftentimes heart-tugging predicaments the subjects find themselves in.

Personification

Her use of personification, a highlight of her stories, makes for rich conversation with children. Her winsome animated machines can lead to great fun as we think about machines and why we sometimes compare them to humans (or animals) when we talk about them. Can you tell we like her works?

In all, she wrote and illustrated 7 children’s books:

The Little House

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

Katy and the Big Snow

Maybelle the Cable Car

Choo Choo

Calico the Wonder Horse

Now there is a 4-book collection that commemorates Virginia Lee Burton’s most popular classic stories, each featured complete and unabridged. They have been entertaining children, parents, and grandparents for more than sixty years, and I think they will entertain you, too!

Mike Mulligan and More: Four Classic Stories

100 Wholehearted Books to Help Fight Back the Culture

Print this booklist before going to the library!

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