From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6–Familiar entries from Aesop are extravagantly extended in this stunning, oversized compendium. The tortoise and hare gracing the cover appeared in Ward's
The Hare and the Tortoise (Millbrook, 1999). This fable is presented afresh along with 11 others, each introduced with a two-page scene that visually and verbally sums up the gist of the tale. For example, "Sour Grapes" opens with the following teaser: "in which a fox tries to hide his disappointment with insults." Beautifully rendered in pen and watercolor, the illustrations incorporate cunning details and offer viewers a nice anticipation of characters and outcomes. Next, two pages of text spin out the story in expansive description, building on the spare tellings of traditional Aesop. Ward emphasizes the lessons in the denouement of each offering followed by the customary pithy statement of the moral. Her language blends formal, even florid, phrases with jocular observations and some colloquial quips. "The hare liked nothing better than impressing the general population with his speed. 'I am the master of faster,' was how he so irritatingly put it." Though the volume is rather large and imposing for comfortable personal reading, there's much to savor in this handsome presentation. Adults will love the sumptuous look of it, and teachers and storytellers will find many uses for this appreciative rendering of Aesop.
–Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Gr. 2-5. The detailed ink-and-watercolor illustrations of animals are gorgeous in this collection of 12 of Aesop's fables. The retellings are elegant, and the grandiose language is part of the fun ("charismatic" mice fight "marauders," and the "effervescent" jackdaw is dressed in "purloined" feathers), though sophisticated concepts such as "nonillusion" will elude the usual picture-book crowd. The art, however, is for everyone. Each beautiful double-page spread is different--from a realistic close-up of the goose that lays the golden eggs to succulent "sour grapes," a fragile dragonfly, and a cricket on a barley stalk. Then there's the picture of the graceful swallows in the sky and the tortoise falling as he tries to fly as they do, an eye-catching way to teach children to "accept your limitations." The combination of the playful and the solemn takes the ancient stories far beyond the heavy lessons they teach.
Hazel RochmanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
