Bill Sokol

When a sly fox, styling himself "Proffit the Great, Fortune-Teller," comes to the forest, he soon convinces all the residents to give him their most beloved possessions, in exchange for his empty words. Only Dimitri the owl and Moishe the cat can see what he is up to. Determined to return the forest to its happy, pre-Profitt state, they enlist the aid of two children, Masha and Ivan. Can they drive Profitt from the forest...?

I was excited to come across this little picture book by Bill Sokol, the artist who contributed the illustrations for the original edition of Lloyd Alexander's marvelous children's fantasy, Time Cat. I'd never encountered any of Sokol's other work, and was curious to see what he would make of the fable form. Unfortunately, I found The Fable of Profitt the Fox rather bland and unappealing, and the four-color illustrations were too uniform to interest me.… (more)