The best picture books about inanimate objects

A Caldecott winner, The Little House was adapted into one of Walt Disney’s most beloved and enduring animated shorts. Both are deeply affecting; it makes one think that a house is not just a thing but its own living being, reborn with each new generation of families that dwell within. Although this is her most profound work Burton very much specialized in stories about inanimate objects, such as Maybelle the Cable Car, Choo Choo, Katy and the Big Snow, and her most well-known, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. This book (and the short) directly inspired my second book.

Gramatky had been a Disney artist in the 1930s. Legend has it Walt had passed on his story about a little tugboat that saves the day, but after Gramatky left the studio and the book became popular, Disney then had second thoughts and adapted it into one of the shorts compromising the wartime animated feature Melody Time. The theme is familiar but potent: being small does not mean you are insignificant, a lesson of encouragement for any child. The illustrations are loose yet beautifully expressive. Gramatky wrote another book about an inanimate object – Homer the Circus Train. Although the story is not as iconic, the illustrations are equally fine. As for Disney, they carried this theme through to other shorts like Susie the Little Blue Coupe, written and boarded by Bill Peet, who wrote many books of his own. It served as one of the inspirations for Pixar’s Cars. "Pedro," a little airplane, was one of the shorts comprising Saludos Amigos. Pedro did have its own book, extremely rare today, with no credit to the author or illustrator. 

Eric and his herd of wild cars are a newly discovered species of furry cars which roam the prairie and drinking from outcroppings of oil. Its unique, whimsical, and oddball humor inspired me to start thinking of my own ideas for picture books although it took me another ten years or so to make it happen. 

This is a unique and unexpected story of a school bus that can take its child passengers anywhere in the world by simply pressing a button on the dashboard. It seems to suggest one can really go anywhere with one’s imagination, particularly when one is absorbed in a book. Gergely illustrated other books about inanimate objects including The Little Red Caboose, Tootle, The Taxi That Hurried, and Scruffy the Tugboat.

This was one of my favorite picture books when I was a child. An insignificant character coming to the rescue of those who are much bigger and important is a tried and true theme but it has a bit of dramatic flair in its own simple way.  Anton Loeb had worked for the Fleischer/Paramount-Famous studios.