#16 in Middle grade
The Story of Ferdinand
- 70
- Pages
- about 1.5 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“The Story of Ferdinand” is a gentle, timeless picture book about a bull who prefers smelling flowers to fighting. Munro Leaf’s Ferdinand sits down in the middle of the bullring and ignores every attempt to provoke him. Some readers take from it a lesson about staying true to yourself; others single out Robert Lawson’s illustrations. A fine book to read aloud to young children, and one that bears many rereadings.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Story of Ferdinand (1936) is the best-known work by the American author Munro Leaf. Illustrated by Robert Lawson, the children's book tells the story of a bull who would rather smell flowers than fight in bullfights. He sits in the middle of the bull ring failing to take heed of any of the provocations of the matador and others to fight. The Story of Ferdinand was published in 1936 by Viking Books. Later, after the Spanish Civil War, it was viewed as having a political agenda. During World War II, the British Air Transport Auxiliary started flying into Europe after D-Day and their pilots, who were non-combatants, used Ferdinand the Bull as their call sign. The book has been adapted into two films, the 1938 animated short Ferdinand the Bull and the 2017 animated feature film Ferdinand. The latter was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 90th Academy Awards.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.6 across 86 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 37% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Middle grade average of 8.0. That is how 8.2 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.9 | 21 | 24% |
| Hardcover | 8.5 | 65 | 76% |
Frequently asked
What age is The Story of Ferdinand for?
The Story of Ferdinand sits on the Middle grade shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 8–12. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 70 pages — shorter than 96% of the ranked books in Middle grade.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Middle grade — with scores between 7.7 and 8.6, closest to this book.
