Stories for Growing
Cover of The Story of FerdinandAges 3 to 5
Independent thinkingKnowing yourself

The Story of Ferdinand

Munro Leaf, illustrated by Robert Lawson

Ages 3 to 5
About this age guidance

Penguin Random House (paperback edition): 3–5; The Children’s Book Review: 4+; Kirkus gives no age

The age tag follows Penguin Random House (paperback edition). Other sources may suggest different ages. This is audience guidance, not an independent reading level.

A parent-founded review site calls it a book about being true to oneself and peace, and says it shows the importance of staying true to yourself even when the world pulls in another direction.

Ferdinand is a bull who would rather smell flowers than fight. Chosen by mistake after a bee sting, he is taken to a Madrid bullring, where he sits down and sniffs the flowers in the ladies’ hair until the fighters give up and send him home to his cork tree.

Recommended by The Children’s Book Review

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What children see in the story

While other bulls dream of fighting, Ferdinand goes his own way. Even in the ring, with everyone expecting him to fight, he does what he actually wants and nobody talks him out of it. Ferdinand knows what he likes and what he does not, and he does not pretend otherwise, not even when his mother wonders about it or the bullring crowd is watching.

Why it’s on these shelves

Independent thinking
While the other bulls dream of fighting in Madrid, Ferdinand goes his own way. Even in the bullring, with everyone expecting a fight, he sits down quietly and keeps doing what he actually likes.
Knowing yourself
Ferdinand knows he likes smelling flowers more than butting heads. His mother worries he is lonely, sees he is content under his cork tree, and lets him be. He is still smelling flowers there at the end.

Why pick it up?

Ferdinand returns to his pasture and is still smelling flowers at the end.

A note for parents

Dated content, honestly: the setting is a bullfight with matador, picadors and a crowd of ladies, and the 1936 text and pen and ink art are old. No opened page mentions stereotype problems, but nobody on those pages looked at it from that angle, and the pictures were not viewed. David may want to read it first. Political history is a talking point, not a problem: the book was read as pacifist or political after the Spanish Civil War and was banned in Spain and burned in Nazi Germany, per Wikipedia. Fit of self-knowledge is looser than other books on that shelf: Ferdinand knows what he likes rather than his skills. Independent-thinking is the stronger fit. The ISBN is the current Viking edition confirmed on Amazon; the publisher page opened is the Grosset & Dunlap paperback. Kirkus lists a 75th anniversary entry.

Where this recommendation comes from

The Children’s Book Review

A parent-founded review site calls it a book about being true to oneself and peace, and says it shows the importance of staying true to yourself even when the world pulls in another direction.

Read Bianca Schulze’s recommendation
Sources and review status

We have checked source descriptions and drafted the value mapping. We have not personally reviewed the full book. The value labels, situation assignments, and parent notes remain provisional.

Publisher or literacy resource · Original recommendation

Our explanation of the value fit is separate from the original reviewer’s judgment. Their inclusion here does not imply an endorsement of Stories for Growing.

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