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. ( )

This book was about the one and only Aesop and his fables. This book does not have a plot at all, so instead I will retell some of the fables. The Grasshopper and the Ants: There once was a grasshopper who didn't work at all in the summer. An ant came and the grasshopper said, "why are you working? The summer is a time for fun and play," "Well," said the ant," It may be for you, but we are preparing for winter." When winter came the grasshopper said,"May I have a bit of food?" " No," said the ant,"you should have given yourself food in the summer," The grasshopper died. 'don't put off for tomorrow what should be done today.' The Fox and the Grapes: There was a fox who wanted some grapes from a tree. The grapes were purple and ripe. The fox could not get the grapes and said,"Those grapes are not very ripe. Look how green they are," The fox went away. 'What con not be ours we look down upon.
I liked this book. It gave great morals and interesting stories. Anyone who likes fantasy should like this book. It did give me a lot of nostalgia of "Aesop & Son" from "Rocky & Bullwinkle". The personalities of the animals were really good, and they dealt with real life problems. Anyone who likes talking animals should read this book. Recommend this book t many of your friends. ( )

To view an annotated bibliography of this title written for EDLI200, expand the spoiler entry below:


Categories/Genres:
Traditional Literature
Fables
Fantasy Fiction
Classics

Estimated age level of interest:
Lower Grades

Estimated reading level:
Grade 3

Brief description:
A collection of well-known and beloved stories to be enjoyed by young and old readers alike. Features such tales as “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse”, “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”, and “The Lion and the Mouse”, each with a moral presented at the end.

At least 2 characteristics of this genre and subgenre and how they appear in this book:
Fables are characterized as being brief and didactic in nature. Each story in this collection very short, rarely even filling an entire page on its own, and accompanied by an explicitly printed moral at the end. The stories are simple and easy to understand. They often exaggerate the likely outcomes of the actions and behaviors undertaken by the characters in them but, in doing so, make the lessons they stand to impart inescapably clear.

Another common characterization of fables is that they frequently utilize animals as characters and assign them human-like traits. Anthropomorphism is an element in the vast majority of the fables in this book, with nearly every story involving animals speaking to each other or exhibiting higher levels of reasoning than one would find in nature. This is a useful device in that it allows the reader to quickly assign different archetypes to each character based on those commonly attributed to different animals (sly fox, wise owl, proud peacock, etc.) and more readily understand the stories.

In what ways and how well does the book as a whole serve its intended audience?
These whimsical stories are meant to serve as lessons of caution and/or encouragement for children. They are very short and take little to no time to read, thus requiring only a short attention span and making them more suitable for young children. Also, their brevity, simple structure, and unambiguous lessons make them easy to recall and reflect on.

Awards, if any:
ALA Notable Children's Books 2001

Links to published, professional reviews, if any:
Editorial reviews available through…

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1587170000?ie=UTF8&isInIframe=1&n=28315...

Titlewave: http://www.titlewave.com/search?SID=850b167e010758c576cd4aaa33596706

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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. ( )

I liked this book and really liked the illustrations. I think the moral lessons are wonderful and this is a book I would like to read to my kids and I think I could read it at different points in their lives and they will connect to the stories in different ways as they get older.