Aesop's Fables

My Aesop reading project continues apace, with this, my ninth collection of fables. Retold and illustrated by the award-winning Jerry Pinkney, whose work has been given the Caldecott Honor five times, this Aesop's Fables presents sixty-one of the classic morality tales, as well as a brief introduction, in which the author lays out his own relationship with the subject matter.

Here the reader will encounter many old favorites, from The Grasshopper and the Ants to The Fox and the Grapes. Here too the reader will discover some lesser-known selections, from The Gardener and the Dog to The Boy and the Almonds. Retold in a contemporary idiom that never feels forced, Pinkney's adaptation feels simultaneously fresh and familiar.

The artwork is show more deliciously expressive - Pinkney's faces, whether human or animal, show great emotional range, and I appreciated his multicultural approach, in depicting people of diverse racial backgrounds. While I feel very strongly that the cultural identity of any work of folklore should be respected, many of these fables are universal, and an Asian fisherman, African-American milkmaid, European farmer, all have their place in Aesop.

That said, I did wonder a little at Mr. Pinkney's choice, in King Log and King Stork (also known as The Frogs Who Desired a King), to substitute "the sun" for Zeus. Where there is a specifically Greek context to the fables, I think it should be retained, but this is a minor quibble, and did not effect my enjoyment of this otherwise excellent collection. show less

Aesop's Fables could sometimes get dark, but still provided valuable lessons for children and could provoke some thoughtful discussions. Many of the stories weren't actually from Aesop, but his name has become almost universally familiar, at least in the Western world, and this book is a very nice collection of many of the Aesopica, accompanied by beautiful illustrations by an illustrator who has excelled at providing illustrations for a good number of children's books. Though this is a children's book, it's still a good read for adults so I recommend it for all ages.

Author/illustrator Jerry said in his introduction, that he either knew the moral or the tale of some of the stories, but hadn’t connected the two until this project. I felt the same way after reading this book. I knew many of the sayings, but not the stories they came from. Pinkney’s book put them together for me. This is a book steeped in thousands of years of common cultural wisdom. I see this as both a reference book and a contemporary storybook. The fables are still relevant for contemporary society.

Aesop's Fables is a collection of short tales with a moral. The illustrations in this edition are watercolors by Jerry Pinkney. The collection includes many of the classics I remember from my childhood like, The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing and The Grasshopper and the Ants. Many of the fables are only one or two paragraphs long. My favorite is The Lion and the Mouse. It is about a lion who allows a mouse to go free and is later saved by the mouse. This was also my favorite fable as a child. This edition includes a full page watercolor of the lion being freed from the mouse.

Aesop's Fables has wide classroom applications. They could be used as a short read around. Children could also rewrite and modernize the tales, keeping the morals the show more same. A class could even create their own collection of modernized tales. show less

Simple and well-written retellings of Aesop's Fables. Pinkney stayed close to the original versions. His colorful and expressive illustrations bring the fables to life.

Some version of Aesop's Fables should be included in every children's library. This version has excuisite illustrations and almost all of the truly great tales. We can all learn a lesson or two by reading or re-reading these stories.

I hadn't read these in years, but now with children of my own I pulled out my copy so we could enjoy them as a family. These tales never get old, and my children loved them so much we're reading them again. A classic that isn't going anywhere.