Aesop's Fables (Hardcover)

~ Jerry Pinkney (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Beautifully designed, this lush, oversize volume showcases Pinkney's (The Ugly Duckling) artistry in grand style. There's a king's ransom worth of material here, as Pinkney serves up more than 60 of the ancient Greek slave-philosopher's fables. Aesop's wisdom spills across the pages as freely as Pinkney's glorious watercolors, alight with the many creatures who people the tales, from fiddling grasshoppers and diligent ants to wily foxes, clever crows, brave mice and grateful lions. Each of the vigorous retellings concludes with the kind of succinct moral that centuries of readers have come to expect (e.g., "Don't count your chickens before they're hatched"; "You are judged by the company you keep"). And whether the homilies concern a wolf in sheep's clothing or sour grapes, the timeless virtues resonate as freshly as the day they were minted. Pinkney brings his considerable talent to bear on everything from thumbnail animal portraits to sweeping full-page vistas of hearth and woodlands, and his detail, delicacy of line and subtle palette create an elegant foil for the simple parables. If there's room on the shelf for only one picture book version of Aesop, this could be it. All ages. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 4-A visually appealing selection of 61 fables that mixes the well known ("The Fox and the Grapes," "The Tortoise and the Hare") with some that have been nearly forgotten ("The Mermaid and the Woodcutter"). In tone and format, this book is reminiscent of early 20th-century Aesop collections for children. Like Arthur Rackham and Milo Winter before him, Pinkney accompanies the stories with a blend of full-page paintings and smaller illustrations. As in those earlier collections, his text uses ele-vated language and an extremely formal sentence structure. While such loftiness is appropriate for a "classic" Aesop collection, with this edition it becomes a bit of a stum-bling block. Unfortunately, Pinkney's intro-duction doesn't give a reason for the text choices or supply sources. Morals are at-tached to each fable and for the most part they are the time-honored ones. Using a mix of watercolor and colored pencil, Pinkney's illustrations of animal characters are fairly realistic while his depictions of humans lean toward the stylized. The artist's masterful use of watercolor is most evident in his pictures of the animals. Highlights include the dou-ble-page spread that accompanies "The Lion and the Mouse" and the full-page illustration for "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse." While the narrative style occasion-ally gets in the way of sharing aloud and its tone is sometimes at odds with the more re-laxed tone of the art, this handsome title is still one of the best of the current crop.
Denise Anton Wright, Alliance Library System, Bloomington, IL
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; 1st Ed. edition (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587170000
• ISBN-13: 978-1587170003
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #56,230 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HEAVY-DUTY GREAT LITERATURE THAT EVEN A 5YEAR OLD LIKES, July 13, 2002

By A Customer

Most kid books are just fluff. Boring stuff.

Aesop's Fables, on the other hand teach REAL VALUES: hard work, honesty, unity, etc. And we hear people refer to various fables on a regular basis throughout our lives.

A child is really disadvantaged if he doesn't get exposed to these valuable stories and internalize them at an early age.

I recently had to repeat the story of "the boy who cried wolf" to my 10-year old son, in order to help him to improve his behavior. this is one of the most important books you could buy for your child.

--George Stancliffe

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Aesop's Fables, November 25, 2003

A Kid's Review

Aesop's Fables is a great book that is a collection of short stories. This book gave us famous phrases that are used today, such as "sour grapes." These are easy to understand stories for all ages(unless you are under the age of 7). It's amazing that such small stories have great meaning. Every fable gives some kind of small lesson at the end. The characters fit each story very well. This book is a must read for people who wonder where some of our everyday phrases come from and who want to learn a lesson from just a few sentences.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inclusive language? Not so you would notice, June 20, 2001

By	"eviepage" (United States) - See all my reviews

This is a wonderful edition of these timeless tales. The illustrations are rich and vivid, full of action and life. Even the stories without a full page illustration are decorated with a small, evocative miniature. One reviewer finds the presence of "exclusive" language as a distraction. Please don't be misled -- these are not "politically correct" retellings of Aesop. Indeed, they are more true to the original than most versions of the fables available for children. Check it out for yourself and share it with a child.