Module 2 – Ox Cart Man, by: Donald Hall

PLOT:  This is a simple story of a family in the New England colonies during the 19^th Century. The family works hard as the seasons change and they make products such as candles, mittens, blankets, brooms and many other items. They make these products by making use what the earth produces and the farm animals they have. They work all year long and in the fall father makes a journey into town to sell his products so that he can purchase other items to continue the cycle.  After he sells everything including the ox and cart that he rode into town with; he then purchases a few items for his family.  He buys an iron kettle for his wife, an embroidery needle for his daughter, a carving knife for his son and two pounds of wintergreen peppermint candies for his entire family to enjoy. He returns his journey back home and the cycle begins all over again.

Hall, D. (1979). Ox-cart Man. New York, NY: Viking Penguin Inc.

IMPRESSION OF THE BOOK:  This book was great, I really enjoyed this book because I was a social studies teacher and this book could be used to introduce the New England colonies.  The pictures are by far the best.  The pictures are very detailed and you can capture the feeling of really being in the New England colonies during this era.  The story has a great way of also introducing the ways of the economy during that time.  The New England colonies are known for making products and selling them, they didn’t rely on plantations because the land was so rocky.  Students could really grasp the reasons why factories eventually became the life style of the New England colonies.  My favorite part of this book is where the father sells everything but remembers his family and buys everyone something so that they can contribute back to making more stuff.

REVIEWS:  PreS-Gr2 – It is fall and farmer loads a car with the year’s produce, journeys to market, sells, buys, and returns to his family to begin the year’s work anew. The journey, and the ensuing year, unfold at a stately pace against the rich 19^th-Century New England backdrop alive with the subtly changing colors and activities of the succeeding seasons.  By today’s standards, the pace may seem to measured, the plot to spare, the results of a year’s labor to slight, the goods purchased in exchange, minimal.  The dignity of the text and the beauty of the landscape draw readers on, and the reward is not to be measured, for the road that leads to the marketplace also leads home.  By stepping into the cycle at the precise point where the process, often, is seen to end, the author reinvents or us the sense that work defines us all, connects us with our world, and we are all rewarded-mother, father, son and daughter – equally, in measure of our effort. – Kristi L. Thomas, Northwest Regional Library, Vt.

Thomas, K. L. (1979). [Review of the book Ox-cart man, by Donald Hall]. School Library Journal, 26(2), 140.

USE IN THE LIBRARY: There are many activities that can be taken from this book one lesson could be writing and illustrating some pages to tell what the ox-cart family does in the summer.  Another lesson could be retelling the story to set it in today's world and how a family would work together to survive.