We have that one now. I remember Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel both first hand and because of an episode in one of the Ramona books in which she asks the teacher how Mike went to the bathroom and the flustered teacher says that's not important, which is not something you tell a bunch of kindergarteners who know that where you go potty is one of the most important things in the world!

And yes, it's a pretty sad book for grownups, but a lot of kids books are. I cannot get through even the bowdlerized board book version of The Velveteen Rabbit that Alice adores.