THE STEAMROLLER

First published in a 1938 story collection, this fantasy about the steamroller Daisy gets for Christmas has obvious current appeal, but it couldn't be farther from a made-to-order liberation message. In fact The Steamroller barrels right through all gown-up notions of suitability to waken children's buried dreams. Daisy's glorious but uncontrollable steamroller rushes down the road squashing "flat as shadows. . .a pig and a chicken and my mean old aunt and three people I didn't know and two automobiles and a garbage truck and a trolley car and a policeman and my teacher." It's an exhilarating ride, and the uneasiness that must inevitably go along will be appeased when, after Daisy jumps out and sends the steamroller across the field in order to avoid squashing her friends, her parents give her a steam shovel with which to scoop all her victims up and back into shape. Evaline Ness' vervey Christmas colored block prints are inspired, and needless to say this leaves a vehicle like A Train for Jane (see Klein, below) coughing up dust — or more appropriately, flattened to a shadow.