The Aesop for Children

Continuing my Aesop project, I recently picked up a copy of Milo Winter's classic collection, originally published in 1919. With 146 fables, and at least one color illustration per page, The Aesop for Children has long been the edition against which all others are judged. Part of the so-called "golden age" of children's illustration, Winter worked on many children's classics in the early years of the twentieth century, but it is primarily this book for which he is remembered.

The reader will encounter many old favorites here, from The Fox and the Grapes to The Hare and the Tortoise, as well as many less well-known selections. The language is charming and old-fashioned, although the effect can be disconcerting. Winter seems inordinately show more fond of the adjective "miry" - I lost count of the number of "miry roads" encountered in his text - and uses "ass" (meaning donkey) frequently. His moral interpretation of the fables can also feel somewhat heavy-handed and dated.

However that may be, the fables themselves are as entertaining as ever, and Winter's illustrations are the ideal complement for them. His animal depictions are simply marvelous - simultaneously realistic and emotionally expressive. show less

Beautifully illustrated, with familiar tales from my childhood, this book should have been a sure winner with me.

It wasn't.

I found myself stopping my read to see how many pages were left.

I think there were just too many morality tales too similar to one another to make this enjoyable.

I read the other version in high school but I probably didn't finish it, so here I am trying to get "closure" with this book. Most stories here were featured in my elementary stories and I thought they were originally shared from local--Filipino--storytellers. Some stories are still unheard of, so I recommend this to kids and young at heart.
P.S. I picked it at random for my 2021 PopSugar Reading Challenge.

A better selection of fables for a child audience, and more appealing illustrations overall, than the classic illustrated edition. (first grade read aloud)

I don't know how I came by this book. It was in boxes of my parents' belongings but was not one of my sister and my books. Inside the front cover is written, To Elizabeth and Ruth From Santa Claus. The book has been well used --- many damaged pages falling out of the binding, some pages frayed badly --- yet I don't have the heart to trash this 1919 Rand McNalley & Co., Chicago book.

This book is great for fluent readers traditional literature because of the fun pictures that are provided, and the size of the font in the story. The book is made like a picture book, but the vocabulary in the book is quite challenging along with the size of the book. This book also shows many different types of traditional tales, for example, The Frogs and the Ox, Belling the Cat, and The Bundle of Sticks. For children, it is important to understand traditional literature due to the history the literature has. There is 112 tall tales in this chapter book, with beautiful pictures. Not only does the book include the traditional tells, but the story includes the meaning of the story, which is very interesting. For example, in the story show more the Fisherman and the Fish, the fisherman caught a fish and the fish says, "put me back, I am too small, let me grow to be bigger so I can be a better meal," but the fisherman instead puts the fish in his basket and says, however small you be, you are better than nothing at all. At the bottom of the page it shows the lesson which his, A small gain is worth more than a large promise. Another good example of an important lesson that one of the stories taught was, A fool may deceive by his dress and appearance, but his words will soon show what he really is, which is the story of the Ass and the Lion. The pictures on the pages are also drawn with pretty water colors and are very entertaining for young people starting to read long books. show less

The Aesop for Children is a book I purchased for my son when he was little as I remember reading this as a child. The illustration's and craftsmanship on this book is beautiful!