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Plot

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Beautifully designed, this lush, oversize volume showcases Pinkney's (The Ugly Duckling) artistry in grand style. There's a king's ransom worth of material here, as Pinkney serves up more than 60 of the ancient Greek slave-philosopher's fables. Aesop's wisdom spills across the pages as freely as Pinkney's glorious watercolors, alight with the many creatures who people the tales, from fiddling grasshoppers and diligent ants to wily foxes, clever crows, brave mice and grateful lions. Each of the vigorous retellings concludes with the kind of succinct moral that centuries of readers have come to expect (e.g., "Don't count your chickens before they're hatched"; "You are judged by the company you keep"). And whether the homilies concern a wolf in sheep's clothing or sour grapes, the timeless virtues resonate as freshly as the day they were minted. Pinkney brings his considerable talent to bear on everything from thumbnail animal portraits to sweeping full-page vistas of hearth and woodlands, and his detail, delicacy of line and subtle palette create an elegant foil for the simple parables. If there's room on the shelf for only one picture book version of Aesop, this could be it. All ages. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 4-A visually appealing selection of 61 fables that mixes the well known ("The Fox and the Grapes," "The Tortoise and the Hare") with some that have been nearly forgotten ("The Mermaid and the Woodcutter"). In tone and format, this book is reminiscent of early 20th-century Aesop collections for children. Like Arthur Rackham and Milo Winter before him, Pinkney accompanies the stories with a blend of full-page paintings and smaller illustrations. As in those earlier collections, his text uses ele-vated language and an extremely formal sentence structure. While such loftiness is appropriate for a "classic" Aesop collection, with this edition it becomes a bit of a stum-bling block. Unfortunately, Pinkney's intro-duction doesn't give a reason for the text choices or supply sources. Morals are at-tached to each fable and for the most part they are the time-honored ones. Using a mix of watercolor and colored pencil, Pinkney's illustrations of animal characters are fairly realistic while his depictions of humans lean toward the stylized. The artist's masterful use of watercolor is most evident in his pictures of the animals. Highlights include the dou-ble-page spread that accompanies "The Lion and the Mouse" and the full-page illustration for "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse." While the narrative style occasion-ally gets in the way of sharing aloud and its tone is sometimes at odds with the more re-laxed tone of the art, this handsome title is still one of the best of the current crop.
Denise Anton Wright, Alliance Library System, Bloomington, IL
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 2-4. An acclaimed illustrator has given himself an ambitious task: retelling and visually reinterpreting 60 of Aesop's traditional tales. And he has succeeded brilliantly, bringing vivid new life to these ancient fables by creating pencil, colored pencil, and watercolor illustrations that are subtle and delicate in color but dynamic and dramatic in composition and in size. Pinkney is particularly successful at investing his animal characters with personality and panache, but his human characters also come alive on the page. Beginning with the illustrated endpapers, every page of this beautifully designed, lavish book is a delight for the eye and an invitation to the imagination. Happily, Pinkney's text proves equal to his art. His language, though formal, is subtly witty and begs to be read aloud, a fitting tribute to the oral tradition of the tales themselves. This first-rate edition is as artful, witty, and wise as old Aesop himself, and it will also stand the test of time. Michael Cart
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
Top Ten Picture Books of the Year Redbook

--REDBOOK, Best for Kids, December 1990
These timeless stories, from "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" to "The Fox and the Crow," are accompanied by stunning classic illustrations by 19th- and 20th-century painters. These beautiful reproductions will give children an appreciation for art, but they're not to be outdone by the text. "The fables are perfect for parents and children to read together," Dodge says. "The morals at the end of each tale will spark meaningful discussions. This collection could become a family treasure."
--SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, March 1991
No other collection of fables so clearly demonstrates the range of artists who have illustrated Aesop than this one. More than 50 fables are each accompanied by at least one illustration from nearly 30 works from Charles Henry Bennett's 1857 version to Edward Bawden's in 1970. The excellent introduction sums up Aesop's importance in literature, and discusses the gradual shift in the intended audience over the years, from adults to children and back to adults. Well-loved fables are included, but many of these will not be as familiar: "The Mountain in Labour," "The Rose and the Butterfly," and "The Ass and His Driver." Crisp, to-the-point tellings never detract from the main focus--the fantastic array of classic illustrations, reproduced from original editions in museums and private collections. There is a wide assortment of illustrational styles, I and the list of artists reads like a "Who's Who" of 19th and early 20th century art: Edwin Noble, Arthur Rackham, Alex and Calder, Walter Crane, Randolph Caldecott, Milo Winter, Jack Orr, and Sophia Rosamund Praeger. The collection bears a decidedly Anglo-Saxon stamp, and young children may not respond to the remote quality of the illustrations. Nevertheless, it's a wonderful opportunity for older children and adults to compare and contrast artists' perspectives. A must for larger folklore collections, as the book will be of special interest to researchers.
Twenty-nine of Aesop's many fine illustrators are represented by the 60 reproductions here, including 17 by Rackham and more modest contributions from artists ranging from Caldecott, Crane, and Lucy Fitch Perkins (of twin-book fame) to Alexander Calder. A brief introduction catalogues the fables' history as a subject for illustration--apparently what is referred to on the jacket as "introductory notes on the artists" (a misleading exaggeration). The pungently concise text is uncredited, but is an acceptable alternative to the embroideries fashionable in recent versions. A notably handsome edition, especially useful for its well-chosen sampling of art, with handy access through an illustrators' index.
--KIRKUS REVIEWS, November 1990
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Greek