ferdinand

Like many North American kids, I loved the children's classic The Story of Ferdinand. I even remember getting it: I was in Grade Two and it was my first experience with the ubiquitous Scholastic Book Club, and Ferdinand was the first book I ever ordered. I adored Robert Lawson's illustrations, immediately related to the pacifist message (as much as a seven year old can -- my first experience with left-leaning politics?), laughed every time I read of Ferdinand's exploits in the bullfighting ring, and it has stayed in my collection ever since.

I re-discovered its sad, yellowed pages, cover long gone, in my 11 year old son's collection a couple of days ago, and was curious about its history. From Wikipedia:

The Story of Ferdinand (1936) is a children's book by American writer Munro Leaf, his best-known work. It tells the story of a bull who prefers to smell flowers rather than fight in bullfights.

The book was released at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, and so was seen by many supporters of Francisco Franco as a pacifist book. It became a target of the right wing, being banned in many countries, and—perhaps because of that suppression—was promoted by many on the left. It was banned in Nazi Germany but was one of the few non-Communist books promoted in Soviet-occupied Poland.

Who knew?

My son, who now owns this book, is the human equivalent of Ferdinand. His early experiences on a soccer pitch were definitely of the 'stop and smell the flowers' variety. He made his coaches mental with frustration, but insisted on playing for several years (much to my chagrin) in an effort to be like his big brother and dad. His Grade One teacher, a total control freak, wanted to knock both our heads together after dealing with him -- and then dealing with me! Like Ferdinand, he is this tall, good looking, active kid, who so does not live in the Real World or subscribe to the mainstream, and is completely oblivious to the fact. So far. He lives in a world of make believe and creativity and I've never seen him bored. He invents each day for himself. He loves small children and all animals, I've never seen him competitive about anything or with anyone, even his brother -- and he's probably the happiest person I know.

#2 son, at age 7, 'riding his scooter'

Since he first held a crayon, #2 son has expressed a vision so unique that it amazes less creative mortals like me. His favourite computer activity is creating stick-figure animations. Earlier this week he took a jpeg of a painting I'd made using some of his drawings as my inspiration (are you with me still?), photoshopped it and then created a short animation. That's what I call creative collaboration at its finest. (And if I can upload a .gif to this blog, please tell me how and I'll post it.)