Munro Leaf wrote many books in his 40 year career as a children's author, but none really topped the success of his first: The Story of Ferdinand. It concerned a little Spanish bull who preferred dreaming and smelling flowers under the cork tree to fighting with other bulls and matadors. When Ferdinand debuted in 1936, some saw the book as a commentary on the Civil War engulfing Spain, or an illustration of the passive resistance methods of the newly famous Mahatma Gandhi. Leaf always maintained the book was non-political, But there was no denying that Ferdinand's message of triumphant pacifism was welcomed by an American public anxiously watching events in Europe.
A few months after Pearl Harbor a lesser known Munro Leaf title appeared: My Book To Help America. I happen to have have a copy in my oddball reading stash, which is presented below in its entirety. You may notice that that by 1942 Leaf was no longer an advocate of Ferdinand-style dreamy pacifism.
Posts
