Happy Chinese New Year!

January 26 begins the Year of the Ox! To celebrate what is known as the Year of the Ox, or Bull, or Water Buffalo, here is a list of possible Oxen themed reads:

1. Paul Bunyan and the Big Blue Ox

Everyone knows the legend of Paul Bunyan and his big blue ox, Babe. Like everything American they are big enough to settle their big new country. And soon there will be a movie.

2. The Ox-Cart Man / Donald Hall, illus. by Barbara Cooney.

Originally a poem, and much revised into a picture book, this lovely old-fashioned story takes us through a country year with a self-sufficient family. This 18th century farming family uses an ox-cart to take their goods to market, where they sell everything including the ox and the cart in order to buy the things they need. The ox-cart man walks home to begin building another cart and raising another ox for next year. Perfectly illustrated by the inimitable Barbara Cooney.

3. The Story of Ferdinand / Munro Leaf

Okay, so Ferdinand is a bull, not an ox, but he is so delightfully charming I had to include him. I loved Ferdinand the peacenik bovine from the time I was a child. Just because Ferdinand is a bull doesn't mean he wants to be in a bullfight; he'd rather sit and smell the flowers -- until the day that five men come to find the meanest bull around for the bullring, and Ferdinand just happens to sit on a bee at that moment. The pacifist sensibilities of the story still hold up; it was published at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War and was seen by some as a comment on that situation. You can also watch a Disneyfied film from 1938.


Although in previous years I've chosen 5 representative books for the animal, this one was much more difficult! Even though I've been mulling it over for the past year I have only come up with three ox related stories. Please share if you have any more!