Ferdinand likes to sit quietly and smell the flowers, but one day he gets stung by a bee and his snorting and stomping convince everyone that he is the fiercest of bulls.

Ferdinand was a peace-loving little bull who preferred smelling flowers to making a reputation for himself in the bullring.

More than half a million visitors to the New York Public Library viewed an exhibition about the role that children's books play in world culture and in our lives. After it had closed, attendees clamored for a catalog of "The ABC of It" as well as for the insightful commentary of children's literature historian Leonard S. Marcus about the objects on display. This book, a collaboration between the University of Minnesota's Kerlan Collection of...