Despite the tendency for people to read a political message in the story, Munro Leaf always maintained that its only agenda was to entertain. “It was propaganda all right,” he's quoted as saying, “but propaganda for laughter only.”

This book fascinated me when I was learning to read. I would read and reread it. I had a deep empathy for the bull, who found himself captive and with life in danger because of mistaken identification. Reid, Carol (March 28, 2012). "Ferdinad (for Ferdinand)". Typo of the Day for Librarians . Retrieved December 7, 2013. Ferdinand': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. December 7, 2017. Archived from the original on March 19, 2019 . Retrieved April 18, 2021.After the shots were fired, Harrach describes seeing "a thin stream of blood spurt from His Highness's mouth onto my right cheek". As Harrach went to the archduke's assistance, the duchess appears to have cried out, "What has happened to you?" before sinking down in her seat with her face between her knees. This latter aspect is what rendered the book so threatening to the dictators and militants of the day, who were already compacting the ashes of one World War into the foundation of another. In a stark affirmation of Iris Murdoch’s timeless observation that “tyrants always fear art because tyrants want to mystify while art tends to clarify,” the book was deemed pacifist propaganda, banned in Franco’s Spain and burned in Hitler’s Germany. Anthony Anderson as Bones, an undersized but agile and fast bull. He is Guapo's friend, and the first of the bulls to befriend Ferdinand. [9] Young Ferdinand does not enjoy butting heads with other young bulls, preferring instead to sit under a cork tree smelling the flowers. His mother is concerned that he might be lonely and tries to persuade him to play with the other calves, but when she sees that Ferdinand is content as he is, she leaves him alone. Tried for treason and murder, eight were found guilty (one remianing conspirator escaped to Serbia before the trial) and three of the men were executed. Princip and Cabrinovic were too young to face death under Austro-Hungarian law and received the maximum term possible of 20 years imprisonment.

Finally, once I really started looking at Robert Lawson's illustrations with lots of help from the internet - I was blown away. a b Busch, Anita (November 17, 2016). "Gabriel Iglesias Joins 'Ferdinand' & 'Smurfs' Voice Casts As He Readies Comedy Tour". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 17, 2017 . Retrieved January 28, 2017. Fall Out Boy— From Under the Cork Tree". The Syndicate. 2005. Archived from the original on November 20, 2006 . Retrieved May 14, 2007. When he was a little boy, Fall Out Boy bassist and lyricist Pete Wentz enjoyed reading ' Curious George', ' Babar' and Richard Scarry, but his favorite children's book was 'The Story of Ferdinand' by Munro Leaf. The story...was so inspirational to Wentz that he titled the band's breakthrough record From Under the Cork Tree.

Summary

Kenigsberg, Ben (December 14, 2017). "Review: 'Ferdinand' Delivers a Timeless Be-Yourself Message". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 18, 2021 . Retrieved April 18, 2021. The Controversial Children's Book Banned by Hitler and Franco | Books & Manuscripts | Sotheby's". Archived from the original on September 21, 2020 . Retrieved January 18, 2020.

I celebrated the Freedom to Read for the 2013 ALA Banned Book Week by reading this selection. Yes, it is a short children's picture book, but I was knee deep in other reads this year.

Follow us

This book is more interesting for having read more stories - especially the Hemingway, as above, and also about the cow that wants to be eaten in Douglas Adams' The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the comedy SF incarnation of a philosophical problem. Possibly the literary descendant of Ferdinand's peers - but something that, to me, was instantly interesting as a teenager, in the way Leaf's story hadn't been, half a short lifetime earlier. Ferdinand movie review & film summary (2017) | Roger Ebert". Archived from the original on November 27, 2020 . Retrieved April 18, 2021.