Fox Tails: Four Fables from Aesop

Author / illustrator Amy Lowry weaves together four famous Aesopian fables concerning the fox in this entertaining picture book, following that vulpine character through a day of misdeeds. Waking up hungry, the fox seeks the grapes at the bottom of his lane, but finds that he cannot obtain them as they are too high off the ground, concluding that they must be sour and that he does not want them after all. Proceeding along, he tricks a crow out of her cheese using flattery, and tricks a goat into jumping into a well, in order to extricate himself from that same predicament. He finishes his day at a dinner given by the stork, this time finding himself tricked, when his avian host, determined to be revenged upon him for a similar trick, show more serves the food in such a way that he cannot eat it...

Being familiar with all four of the fables—The Fox and the Grapes, The Fox and the Crow, The Fox and the Goat, and The Fox and the Stork—used in Fox Tails: Four Fables from Aesop, I was curious to see how Lowry would string them all together, in order to form one cohesive narrative. On the whole I think she succeeded very nicely, and I found the story here amusing. The fox is always wily, but only sometimes the victor, which is as it should be. The artwork, done in gouache and pencil, has definite appeal, although I think I appreciated the use of color and general composition more than the depiction of specific animals. Somehow, our vulpine hero seemed a little too portly to me, and I'm not sure how I felt about his sweater. I have read quite a few Aesopian retellings at this point, both of individual tales and in collections, and I always enjoy them. But stories such as this, which use various fables together, in order to tell a larger story, are somewhat less common (although no less enjoyable). I would recommend this one to young fox lovers and to those seeking creative Aesopian retellings, and would recommend the following titles in this same vein: Anno's Aesop: A Book of Fables by Aesop and Mr. Fox by Mitsumasa Anno and Tales of a Long Afternoon by Max Bolliger. show less

Characters: A fox, stork, goat, and crow.

Setting: An outdoor, rural area and a house

Theme: Morals

Genre: Traditional Literature - Fable

Golden quote (optional):

Summary: In this one volume, four of Aesop’s fables are entwined to make one fluid story. The main character through out the book is the fox and is the thread that ties each story together. The stories and morals included are: The Fox and the Grapes (the fox could not reach the grapes – moral is it is easy to scorn what you cannot get), The Fox and The Crow (when complimented by the fox, the crow opens her mouth and drops her cheese – moral is never trust a flatterer), The Fox and the Goat (the goat helps the fox out of a well but then is stranded – moral is look before show more you leap), and The Fox and The Stork (the fox gives the stork a meal she cannot eat – moral is one bad turn deserves another). The colorful illustrations work as a continuum throughout the book. In the last fable, the four animals are brought together in the illustration. The crow, goat, and stork, seek revenge on the fox in the last story of the book.

Audience: preschool through sixth grade

Curriculum ties: language arts: writing, making comparisons, outlining

Awards (optional):

Personal response: This is a very cleverly put together book of four of Aesop’s fables all involving a seemingly tricky fox. I love how the offended animals (the crow, goat, and stork) get even at the end. Not necessarily a lesson for children but certainly worth of teaching what not to do. The illustrations are charming with the softness of watercolors in appearance. This would be a nice tie in when teaching ancient histories (Greek and Persian war times), as Aesop was a slave/storyteller in this time period (~2500 years ago). The fables are as important now as life lessons as they when originally told. show less

I enjoyed this book for two reasons. First, the plot, which displayed the moral of the story clearly through four fables from Aesop. The plot contained conflict from Fox toward the crow, the goat and stork. Through each encounter a new moral was learned. For example, the last fable was about Stork seeking revenge on Fox for treating goat and crow horribly. Stork made Fox dinner but put the food into a tall slim glass that only Stork could eat having such a long beak. From this the moral of this fable was, one bad turn deserves another. The others were, it is easy to scorn what you can't get, never trust a flatterer and look before you leap. Second, the characters were talking animals that acted like humans, having human like traits. show more They ate like humans, had emotions and expressed emotions toward one another like humans and wore clothes. The characters were believable and in the situation Fox was, you did not feel bad when the stork, goat and crow seek revenge because you felt emotionally attached and felt bad for them. Overall, the moral of the story is, be kind to others and they will be kind to you. show less

I liked this story and found it was a fun way to share some of Aesop's fables with my children. It was easy to follow and understand. The simplicity of the story and the illustrations made it easy to discuss the morals of the stories with my children.

An easy way to introduce fables to an early elementary classroom. Many of these tales are familiar and it gives a chance to see how a creative author can use many ideas to weave a story.

This is the story of a trickster fox. The fox flatters a crow in oder to steal her food and leaves a goat trapped in a well when he tricks her into helping him out. The crow and Goat get revenge on the Fox with the help of a stork who is also upset with the fox. That night at dinner the fox learns that you should be careful who you trick.

This story is about a fox who tricks three different animals in order to get what he wants. First, he is unable to have grapes, then he uses flattery in order to get the crow to drop his food, then he convinces a goat to jump in a well in order to use the goat to climb out of the well, later we find out that before he played tricks on the crow and the goat, he had tricked the stork out of eating some of the soup he had made. It ends by the three animals tricking the fox by outsmarting him last.