Pictured above is one of my favorite childhood books.  Published two years before I was born, I hadn’t given Ferdinand the Bull a thought in decades.

Until a friend showed me her copy of Ferdinand, a favorite from her childhood also, prominently displayed on a bookshelf in her office. She suggested that we read it out loud to one another.  I recognized every word, but she had the whole book memorized! Its story teaches children an important lesson--it’s OK to be different than everyone around you.

A lesson as important today as it was when Mother read Ferdinand to her three-year-old daughter Judy.