Reviews: (by author)

Burton, Virginia Lee. The Cable Car. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1952 (reissued). ISBN 0-395-82847-3. Hardback... no price.

Burton lived for a while in San Francisco, and The Cable Car is her homage to the city's passion for its favorite mode of transportation (at least the tourists' favorite). With her trademark distinctive design and use of color and the rhythm of her prose, she tells the story of Maybelle, the polite cable car who is almost sidetracked in the name of progress. Maybelle and her "sister" cable cars do win the day when the city votes in favor of refurbishing them and keeping them running up and down the slick, slippery streets where even the bombastic bus Big Bill eventually concedes he cannot go. The book, like Burton's Caldecott-winning The Little House, combines nostalgia with the thought-provoking ideas what's new may not be best and that hurrying and worrying are symptomatic not of getting more done but of enjoying life less. As with all her books, one finishes with a profound respect for her use of the page: the intricate decoration, the layout, the sense of movement, and the placement of the print. The storyline, with its successful little underdog, as well as the art, is of great appeal.

A.A. Nov. '02

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