Ox-Cart Man
Written by Donald Hall
Illustrated by Barbara Cooney
Reviewed by Steven H. (age 8) & Jesse T. (age 8)
Could you imagine selling almost everything you own? A man goes to town to get things for his family. He brings a lot of things from his farm. He sold wool, a shawl his wife made and five pairs of mittens, birch brooms, potatoes, apples, honey and honey combs, turnips and cabbages, goose feathers, maple sugar, the wooden box he carried the sugar in, a barrel of apples, the potato bag, then his ox and the cart. Then he sold the yoke and a harness. He sold everything he had. He used the money to buy things his family needed. He walks home because he sold his ox and cart. His family uses the things he bought to make new things to sell.
I (Steven) like the part when the man packed the honey and honey combs because it made me hungry. I (Jesse) liked when he walked home all night because I don't think I could do that! We liked how the family in the book worked together so they could get what they needed. The illustrator really took her time and put a lot of details. No wonder it won a Caldecott!
We recommend this book to people who are interested in how people lived a long time ago. If you like picture books, you will like the details. They show how things really looked a long time ago.