I loved Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel! That is a very old book...I was first introduced to it by Captain Kangaroo. He always used to read books on his show. Another one he read that I liked was The Story of Ping.
Make Way for Ducklings and The Little Engine That Could are two more oldies but goodies.
I most likely heard Captain Kangaroo read the book on his show (I was more of a Captain Kangaroo guy than a Sesame Street guy). I must have showed some interest because my Mom bought me a copy at some point. Of course I drew pictures all over the illustrations with my own 5 year old ideas of how they should really look!