Today I have another review on a children’s picture book that I think you will love. Ox-Cart Man, written by Donald Hall and illustrated by Barbara Cooney is a sweet book for children that has won the Caldecott Medal.

The New York Times Book Review said this about the book, “This is the kind of picture book that you can return to again and again, for as pretty as it is it’s better than pretty; it’s true in a way that moves children and grown-ups alike.”

And The Horn Book review says, “…the stunning combination of text and illustration recreates the mood of the nineteenth-century rural New England.”

The book opens in October when the man hitches his Ox to a cart and the family begins to load it with everything they have made or grew for a year. It’s a sweet story of a family working together to provide food, clothing, shelter and love for each other.

The man leaves his family and walks ahead of his ox and cart for the ten day journey that takes him to the Portsmouth Market. He begins to sell all his goods. I was shocked when he sold the Ox cart. And even more shocked when he sold the Ox. A sweet note here is that he kisses the ox good-bye, on the nose. ❤️

He buys his supplies for the winter from the money he has earned and tucks everything into a kettle that he places on a stick over his shoulder and begins the long walk home.

When he arrives home, all of the family begin immediately to work on the projects that will be sold next year. He begins to build a new Ox cart. The rest of the book tells of all they do that winter to be ready for the next October. It goes through the seasons of planting, shearing sheep, bee keeping, making maple syrup, all a part of the new buzz words I keep hearing on YouTube—working for the “home economy.”

I like Merriam Webster’s definition of home economy—”the study of the care and management of a household.”

This book is a great example of how people did it many years ago without modern technology. When I read the book, I got the same feeling that I get when I read Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. There is a sweetness about a family that works to provide comforts for each other. And I always think they ate some of the most amazing food ever.

I highly recommend you read this book with your children and discuss the difference between how families worked then as opposed to now. Then have your children think of ways you might incorporate some of the practices in our homes today.

And—I will leave you with one last question… Why do you think the Ox-Cart man begin to build a new cart when he had sold his Ox that would have pulled it? This book is worth adding to your home library to find out.

Have a great week!