I love sharing our favorite reads with all of you, but I also love hearing about yours. I asked Lydia from Life, Love, and Lydia to share with us one of her family’s favorites off their bookshelf. Here’s what Lydia pulled off the shelf.

I am so honored to write a guest post for Sheri.  Her blog is one of my daily reads and I absolutely love her bookshelf posts. When she asked me to write a bookshelf post, I found it hard to narrow it down to one book. I am overwhelmed by all of the many books that I read to my son. My two year old has a new favorite book every week. Being a former teacher, I love to encourage my baby boy to read and I love choosing books that inspire his imagination and most importantly, that teach him great life lessons.

I also love to introduce him to books that I loved as a child. One of my favorites, The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, is quickly becoming his favorite. My brother bought it for him because he remembers me reading it to him. By the way, in the picture where he is holding the book, he was crying because he didn’t want to go to bed, but when I told him I was going to read Ferdinand, he calmed down! What can I say? He loves this story.

It tells the story of a sweet, sensitive bull named Ferdinand who does not wish to fight and be aggressive like his fellow young bulls, but instead chooses to sit by the cork tree and smell the flowers. His mother was worried about him that he would be lonely, but once she saw that he was happy, she became content that he was content. When the time comes for a bull to be chosen to fight in the bullfights, Ferdinand is confident that he won’t get chosen and he is absolutely happy about it, but events out of his control change his circumstances.

I love the detailed black and white illustrations and just looking through the book brings a wave of nostalgia over me because the pictures are so memorable from my childhood. The best part of the book for me is the lesson that it carries about being yourself, even if the rest of the world may think you are not “normal.” I love that Ferdinand doesn’t live to please others, but instead loves who he is and chooses to be true to himself. I don’t think there is a better lesson for my son to learn than that.