![]() The toy clown flags down other engines to help them: a shiny yellow passenger engine, a big black freight engine, and a rusty old engine. The story begins with a toy-filled train pulled by a small red engine on its way to a town on the other side of a mountain but the engine shortly breaks down upon reaching the mountain. However, it still kept saying, "I-think-I-can, I-think-I-can." It reached the top by drawing on bravery and then went on down the grade, congratulating itself by saying, "I thought I could, I thought I could."Ī Disney version of the story was published in 1976: As it went on the little engine kept bravely puffing faster and faster, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can."Īs it neared the top of the grade, which had so discouraged the larger engines, it went more slowly. ![]() "I think I can", puffed the little locomotive, and put itself in front of the great heavy train. In desperation, the train asked the little switch engine to draw it up the grade and down on the other side. Then the train asked another engine, and another, only to hear excuses and be refused. "I can't that is too much a pull for me", said the great engine built for hard work. One morning it was waiting for the next call when a long train of freight-cars asked a large engine in the roundhouse to take it over the hill. Only the little engine is willing to try and, while repeating the mantra "I think I can, I think I can", overcomes a seemingly impossible task.Ī little railroad engine was employed about a station yard for such work as it was built for, pulling a few cars on and off the switches. The underlying theme is the same-a stranded train is unable to find an engine willing to take it on over difficult terrain to its destination. The story of the little engine has been told and retold many times. Despite the steep climb and heavy load, the engine slowly succeeds in pulling the train over the mountain while repeating the motto: "I-think-I-can". ![]() The request is sent to a small engine, who agrees to try. Larger locomotives, treated anthropomorphically, are asked to pull the train for various reasons they refuse. In the tale, a long train must be pulled over a high mountain after its locomotive breaks down. ![]() Although there had been many previous editions of this classic story, "It was the work of George and Doris Hauman that earned The Little Engine the title of being worthy to sit on the same shelf as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." A 1976 rework that featured art by Ruth Sanderson received a lot of attention at the time of its release, in part because it prompted a discussion of gender stereotypes. In 1954, Platt & Munk published another version of The Little Engine That Could, with slightly revised language and new, more colorful illustrations by George and Doris Hauman. This retelling of the tale The Pony Engine appeared in 1930, with a title page that stated: "Retold by Watty Piper from The Pony Engine by Mabel C. He personally hired Lois Lenski to illustrate the book. Munk used the name Watty Piper as both an author of children's books and as the editor of many of the books that Platt & Munk published. The best known incarnation of the story The Little Engine That Could was written by "Watty Piper" in 1930, a pen name of Arnold Munk, who was the owner of the publishing firm Platt & Munk. Miller was the founding editor and publisher of The Book House for Children, a company based in Chicago. The Book House version began, "Once there was a Train-of-Cars she was flying across the country with a load of Christmas toys for the children who lived on the other side of the mountain." The story was labeled "As told by Olive Beaupré Miller" the first edition gave credit to Bragg, but subsequent editions did not as Miller subsequently concluded that "the story belonged to the realm of folk literature". The story first appeared in print with the title The Little Engine That Could in 1920, collected in Volume I of My Book House, which is a set of books sold in the U.S. She introduced new events to the story, such as the train's kid-friendly cargo, but she "took no credit for originating the story". A different version with the same title appeared in a magazine for children in 1916 under the name of Mabel C. Problems playing this file? See media help.Īnother version was published under the name " The Pony Engine" in the Kindergarten Review in 1910, written by Mary C.
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