Ferdinand
The Story of Ferdinand
Written by Munro Leaf; Illustrated by Robert Lawson
New York, Viking, 1936
7.15" x 8.3"
Kerlan Collection, Children's Literature Research Collections
University of Minnesota Libraries
Like Wanda Gág's Millions of Cats of a decade earlier, The Story of Ferdinand was greeted by librarians and critics as a milestone work in the aesthetic development of the American picture book. When controversy erupted over its possible intent as political allegory, Anne Carroll Moore was quick to jump to the book's defense, declaring it, in her column for The Horn Book Magazine, an "effortless, carefree collaboration...designed for the sheer entertainment of the ageless."