We were in Vermont last weekend, spending Saturday at the Tunbridge World’s Fair. This has been an annual event for our family as long as I can remember: I have missed only a handful, and my boys now look forward to the Fair as I did when I was young. The commercial elements that seemed to dominate the Fair in recent years were less apparent this year, and there was a greater emphasis both on agriculture and on local history than in years past. We managed to see all the animals, produce and crafts, the kids nicely having promised to put off the rides and games until we been through the barns and halls.

With the harvest and agriculture in mind, it was fitting that I found Donald Hall’s Ox-Cart Man when I arrived at my parents’ house. Barbara Cooney’s illustrations (in a folk-art style) beautifully bring to life this simple story of a 19th-century farmer and the season cycle of his life: “In October he backed his ox into his cart and he and his family filled it up with everything they made or grew all year long that was left over…”

A Caldecott Medal winner, Ox-Cart Man is a great book for fall, and it teaches in its quiet way not only the ways of our forefathers, but the rewards that one’s labors can bring.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 26th, 2005 at 11:30 am and is filed under Miscellany, Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.