Voting Station

Munro Leaf

Please vote to return to collections.

Author

The Resume

    (December 4, 1905-December 21, 1976)
    Born in Hamilton, Maryland
    Birth name was Wilbur Monroe Leaf
    Best known for the children's book 'The Story of Ferdinand' (1936)
    Also wrote 'Noodle,' 'Grammar Can Be Fun,' 'Wee Gillis,' 'The Story of Simpson and Sampson,' 'Gordon the Goat,' and 'This is Ann, She's Dying to Meet You'

Why he might be annoying:

    He taught at a prep school.
    In the children's book genre he was basically a 'one-hit wonder.'
    He came up with the idea for 'Grammar Can Be Fun' after overhearing a moether lecture her son about the inappropriateness of saying 'ain't.'
    It proved so popular that he launched a series of '...Can Be Fun' textbooks on a variety of classroom subjects.
    He allegedly scribbled the 'Ferdinand' story down on a yellow legal-length pad in less than an hour - and spent the rest of his life defending it. (Wow, kinda like Tammy and 'Stand By Your Man'!)
    He opted to make his famous protagonist a bull because 'he had never seen one in a children's book before' (and chose to name him 'Ferdinand' because it was the only Spanish name he knew other than 'Isabella').
    'Ferdinand' was adapted into a CGI-animated kids' flick starring John Cena and Peyton Manning (2017). Barring a few basic similarities, the film treatment was almost unrecognizable from the original book.

Why he might not be annoying:

    His older sister was deaf.
    He received his master's degree from Harvard University.
    'Ferdinand' was widely regarded as a pacifist allegory about the Spanish Civil War.
    'Ferdinand' was both banned by the Spanish government and burnt as propaganda in Nazi Germany.
    He worked with Dr. Seuss (then Theodore Giesel) to create a WWII pamphlet on malaria.
    'Ferdinand' has been translated into more than 60 languages, including Twl, Ga, Fanti and Ewe.
    'Ferdinand' was adapted into a Walt Disney short film which won an Academy Award (1938).
    'Ferdinand' was said to have sold 2.5 million copies worldwide (at the time more than even 'Gone With the Wind').
    'Ferdinand' was the only American book made available in Stalinist-Poland and would be distributed to children in Berlin following the end of World War II.
    His book, 'Wee Gillis,' about a boy living in Scotland halfway between the Highlands and the Lowlands, was cited as a 1939 Caldecott Honor Book.
    He made a number of trips abroad as a cultural representative for the US State Department.

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 68 Votes: 51.47% Annoying