The Little Engine That Could

This article is about the children's story book. For the 1991 film, see The Little Engine That Could (1991 film). For the 2011 film, see The Little Engine That Could (2011 film).

"I Think I Can" redirects here. For a song by The Pillows, see I Think I Can (song).

The Little Engine that Could is a children's story that appeared in the United States of America. The book is used to teach children the value of optimism and hard work. Some critics would contend that the book is a metaphor for the American dream.

Background

An early published version of the story, "Story of the Engine that Thought It Could", appeared in the New York Tribune, 8 April 1906, as part of a sermon by the Rev. Charles S. Wing.

A brief version of the tale appeared under the title Thinking One Can in 1906, in Wellspring for Young People, a Sunday school publication. This version reappeared in a 1910 publication by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The story then appeared under the name The Pony Engine in the Kindergarten Review in 1910, written by Mary C. Jacobs (1877–1970).

A version of the story appeared in the six-volume Bookhouse Books, which were copyrighted in the UK in 1920 and sold in the U.S. via door-to-door salespersons. Although this version contained no author attribution, it was edited by Olive B. Miller and published in Chicago. The Bookhouse version began, "Once there was a Train-of-Cars, and she was flying merrily across the country with a load of Christmas toys for the children who lived way over on the other side of the mountain."

In the 1941 Disney movie "Dumbo" the work train taking the circus animals to their destination pulls its cargo up a hill repeating the well known saying "I-Think-I-Can-I-Think-I-Can" and rolls down the hill saying "I-Thought-I-Could-I-Thought-I-Could"

The best known incarnation of the story The Little Engine That Could was written by "Watty Piper", a pen name of Arnold Munk, who was the owner of the publishing firm Platt & Munk. Arnold Munk was born in Hungary, and as a child, moved with his family to the United States, settling in Chicago. Later he moved to New York. Platt & Munk offices were at 200 Fifth Avenue till 1957 when Arnold Munk died. Arnold 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. He personally hired Lois Lenski to illustrate the book. This retelling of the tale The Pony Engine appeared in 1930. The first edition attributes Mabel C. Bragg as the originating author. However, Mabel C. Bragg, a school teacher in Boston, Massachusetts, never claimed to have originated the story.

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. A 1976 rework featured art by Ruth Sanderson.

Plot

In the tale, a long train must be pulled over a high mountain. Larger engines, treated anthropomorphically, are asked to pull the train; for various reasons they refuse. The request is sent to a small engine, who agrees to try. The engine succeeds in pulling the train over the mountain while repeating its motto: "I-think-I-can".

The story of the little engine has been told and retold many times. 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. Only the little blue engine is willing to try and, while repeating the mantra "I think I can, I think I can," overcomes a seemingly impossible task.

An early version goes as follows:

A 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. 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. "I can't; that is too much a pull for me," said the great engine built for hard work. Then the train asked another engine, and another, only to hear excuses and be refused. In desperation, the train asked the little switch engine to draw it up the grade and down on the other side. "I think I can," puffed the little locomotive, and put itself in front of the great heavy train. 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."

As it neared the top of the grade, which had so discouraged the larger engines, it went more slowly. 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."

Versions

Later versions would revamp the story to have a more specific appeal for children — the stranded train is recast as a train of good food and anthropomorphic toys for the children across the mountain, thus in saving the train the little engine seems to be working for the benefit of the child reader, making the successful deed all the more triumphant.

In these versions another character appeared and remained a key part of the story hereafter — the clown ringleader of the toys who attempts to find help with several locomotives but is rebuffed. The number of engines in the story also eventually became standard across the tellings: The happy locomotive on the toy train who breaks down and cannot go on, the pompous passenger engine who considers himself too grand for the task, the powerful freight engine who views himself as too important, and the elderly engine who lacks either the strength or determination to help the toys. The little blue engine always appears last and, although perhaps reluctant (some editions have the engine clarify her role as a switcher not suited for road-work), always rises to the occasion and saves the day for the children over the mountain.

Curiously, each engine is defined by its appearance or function and is not given a name or personality beyond its role on the railroad. It is only in the 1991 film adaption that the engines' personalities are expanded on, including the granting of names: Farnsworth (the express engine), Pete (the freight engine), Georgia (the friendly engine of the toy train), Jebediah (the elderly engine) and Tillie, the titular 'little engine that could'. The clown was also named 'Rollo' and a sixth engine character, 'Doc', appeared briefly to recover the broken-down Georgia and thus tie up the hanging story-thread of what happened to the failed engine of the toy train, which all other versions leave unaddressed.

The little engine is an anthropomorphic locomotive like Thomas the Tank Engine and Ivor the Engine, though she predates them.

Films

The tale with its easy-to-grasp moral has become a classic children's story and was adapted in 1991 as a 30-minute animated film produced in Wales and co-financed in Wales and the United States. The film named the famous little engine "Tillie" and expanded the narrative into a larger story of self-discovery.

In March 2011, the story was adapted as a 3-D film named The Little Engine That Could, produced by Universal Studios and featuring the voices of Whoopi Goldberg, Jamie Lee Curtis, Alyson Stoner, and Corbin Bleu. The movie's plotline is has changed with the trains working in a dream world and the little engine's design had changed.

"Little Engine" toys and Rail Tours

A full-size replica of the Little Engine That Could makes an annual circuit around the United States. Arranged through Rail Events, Inc., a number of tourist and museum railroad operations host the 'I Think I Can' Rail Tour. The replica was constructed in 2005 by the Strasburg Railroad. Strasburg also constructed the Thomas The Tank Engine replicas that tour throughout the United States.

American toy company Whittle Shortline produces wooden toy trains of The Little Engine That Could as a domestic alternative to Thomas the Tank Engine. Maxim Enterprise held the license prior to 2006. The toys have proven to be popular, with the recent (as of June 2007) announcement of Thomas the Tank Engine toys containing lead. Many parents have expressed outrage at the news of the lead-tainted toys and have bought "Little Engine" toys as an alternative.

In popular culture

• International champion vintage motorcycle racer Todd Henning's motto was "I Think I Can, I Think I Can," and he named his racing team I Think I Can Racing after the book.
• The story was made into a song by Burl Ives, eliminating two of the engines who refuse to help the stuck train and ending with a more optimistic variation of the congratulatory mantra: "I knew I could."
• The story was referenced extensively as a fictionalised or theoretical film pitch to illustrate the Hollywood system of meetings in the William Goldman book Adventures in the Screen Trade.
• The story was read in MTV's Beavis and Butt-head when principal McVicker went into a psychiatric hospital and was reading part of the story.
• The story was made into a skit on The Electric Company, with Hattie Winston narrating, "I think I can!" and portraying the engineer driving a train up a steep hill. The train makes it over and Hattie keeps repeating "I thought I could!" until the train ends up going right into a lake at the bottom of the hill.
• The engine's chant of "I-think-I-can-I-think-I-can" was included in part of the train scene in Dumbo.
• This book was chosen by "Jumpstart Read for the Record" to be read worldwide to tens of thousands of children on August 24, 2006.
• In the Watty Piper retelling, the engine that breaks down and Little Engine That Could are female, while all of the engines that refuse to help are male (this was the same in the 1991 movie).
• The Little Engine is based on the C. P. Huntington locomotive with a 4-2-4 wheel arrangement.
• Shel Silverstein wrote a poem called "The Little Blue Engine" that referenced this story, except in the end the engine almost reached the top of the hill but then very quickly slid back down and crashed on the rocks below. The poem ended with the memorable line "If the track is tough and the hill is rough, THINKING you can just ain't enough!"
• Mickey's Young Readers Library had an adaptation titled Goofy Goes to the Fair, in which Goofy's friends have to ride with him in his car Old Faithful, in the role of the engine, to the fair.
• In The End, by Lemony Snicket, the Little Engine That Could is mentioned, described as "one of the most tedious stories on Earth".
• One comic of The Far Side features a down-on-his-luck Little Engine sitting at the side of a building with a sign that reads "I thought I could, I thought I could."
• The Little Engine that Could was mentioned in the 1993 film adaption of Dennis the Menace.
• The song "C'mon 'n' Ride It (The Train)" by Quad City DJs includes the famous lines "I think I can, I think I can."
• The first episode of the third season of Fox's sit-com Married... With Children, "He Thought He Could", Al Bundy has forgotten to return the book to the library for 21 years.
• In the comedy movie Major Payne, the title character tells an incarnation of what starts out as what seems like a legit version of the story, then into a particularly gory version of one of his war stories, to his youngest cadet.
• In a commercial for Jolly Ranchers, the Little Engine That Could is seen in the background climbing the mountain. However, just before he reaches the top, the woman in the foreground eats an apple Jolly Rancher, causing a large apple to appear on top of the mountain, preventing the engine from reaching the top, causing him to slide back down the track.
• President Clinton mentioned the book at his speech to the DNC in 1996.
• In the Hey Arnold! episode "Stoop Kid", the book is used an inspiration for the character Stoop Kid.
• The story was made into a song by John Denver with the title of the same name. It was featured on his final album All Aboard!.
• Captain Kangaroo, played by Bob Keeshan, read this story on his TV show.
• In an episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, a book named "The Little Engineer that Could" is read, a reference to the title of this book.
• In the "Bedtime Stories" episode of season one of the UK TV series The Book Group, the book the group read was The Little Engine that Could
• In an episode of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Ned finds Gordy reading the book in the school library.
• West End and Broadway musical Starlight Express was loosely based on the book.
• In the seventh episode of the first season of The Big Bang Theory, "The Dumpling Paradox," Christy tells Howard: "There's my little engine that could" to which he replies "Chugga-chugga-chugga..." and Sheldon says: "There's another beloved children's book I can never read again."
• Former Syracuse University football head coach Greg Robinson directly quoted this Wikipedia page in his farewell speech in December 2008.
• The explanation of the internals of regexes in Perl in The Camel book is titled 'The little engine that /Could(n\'t)?/'.
• In the Barney & Friends episode "Who's Who On the Choo-Choo?" Stella the Storyteller recites The Little Engine That Could.
• In an episode of Family Ties, two people read The Little Engine That Could.
• In a Hallmark commercial, they read The Little Engine That Could. When they see a Hallmark card, they stop reading the book and mom reads the card.
• In a J. Cole song, Who Dat, J. Cole mentions the book by saying 'The little engine that could, this little nigga is good'.
• In one commercial, a clip from the 1991 film is shown when a dad tries to find a way to stop his baby crying while looking up on the computer.

External links

• In Search of Watty Piper