Ferdinand the Bull is a musical setting of The Story of Ferdinand, written in 1932 by Munro Leaf and illustrated by Robert Lawson. The book has become a classic. In this version, certain characters or events in the story have musical themes: Ferdinand's flower-sniffing waltz (played by the cello), fast piano scales depict other young bulls running around and the fanfare is for the parade into the bullring. And there is a part everyone can play, right along with the recording: put a finger in your mouth, tighten your lips, and "pluck" one side just like the reader - it's the sound of a cork popping off a bottle, for the cork tree.