Author Patricia MacLachlan recommends Ox-Cart Man, written by Donald Hall and illustrated by Barbara Cooney. “It is a perfect marriage of art and words, portraying a country family’s days and weeks and months of a year—through all the changing seasons. The members of the family prepare things to take to market. It is a true cycle of life story—to sell what they’ve made to live their life—then begin again. There is a sense of joy and simplicity. It reminds me of what Confucius said ‘Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.'”
Ox-Cart Man (Viking Press, 1979) is recommended for ages 2-5.
Be sure to check out MacLachlan’s novels The Truth of Me (Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2013), Fly Away (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2014), and White Fur Flying (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2013), and her picture book The Iridescence of Birds (Roaring Brook Press, 2014), illustrated by Hadley Hooper.
Learn more at HarperCollins.com/Patricia-Maclachlan
and SimonandSchuster.com/Patricia-MacLachlan.