THE STORY OF FERDINAND: Snotting and Butting and Kicking

[Today we read THE STORY OF FERDINAND written by Munro Leaf and illustrated by Robert Lawson in 1936.  John was the only child to contribute today, because he missed discussing GROWL BEAR yesterday. I asked him to pick his favorite, and he wanted to talk about THE STORY OF FERDINAND. He actually flipped page by page through the book as he talked.]

EK John: I liked it because it had a big "O" [the first word of the book is ONCE, and the O is giant in comparison to the rest of the font] and a tall tower. And I like it because Ferdinand was eating a little grass. And I liked when all of the bulls were just butting around and stuff. And I liked when Ferdinand was walking to the cork tree. And I like it when he was just relaxing at the cork tree. And I like when his mother was going to ask if he was lonely. And I like when he said, "I'm not lonely." And I liked when the mother was just walking away. I liked this page because it marked how old he was. And I like it when he was just sitting under the tree calmly.

And I like it when they saw they could have been chosen to the bull fight. And I like it because all the men were wearing funny hats. And I liked it when all the bulls wanted to be chosen. And I liked this page because he sat on a bee. And I liked it when he had his eyes wide opened because he was sitting on a bee. And I liked it when he just jumped up because the bee just stung him. And I liked it when he was snotting and butting and kicking.

And I like when they were pulling him to the ring. And I like when they were all bringing him to the ring. And I liked when the girls had the flowers in their hair. And I liked it when they brung out everything to make them mad, and I liked everything else that they wanted to make him mad with. And I liked it because they bring out the sword and he [the matador] was smiling a lot. And I liked the one where Ferdinand just peeked out of there. And I liked it when he was walking out to the ring. And I liked it because he was just sitting around smelling the flowers. And I liked it when all the men were so mad. And I like that guy [the matador] was so sad.  And I liked it when he was going to leave the ring. And I liked it when he was just sitting under the cork tree.

I liked it in the front [cover illustration] when he was in a different color red instead of white. In the black and white pictures when they [the baby bulls] were running there was some black on the grass and they [the bulls] had some black spots on them. This was very old and I like painting in the olden days.