The Ants and the Grasshopper

Abstract

This is a 32-page adaptation of GA. That this is a creative adaptation of the fable is clear, if not sooner, on 4-5, where the ants above ground wear hard-hats and ants working under the earth wear miners' helmets with lights on them. The grasshopper is marked as frivolous from his first words: Gangway! I'm practicing backflips. Apparently, his backflips tear up their carefully written diagrams and plans. When the ants build a hill on a rainy summer day, one of them holds an umbrella! The grasshopper -- also holding an umbrella -- dances around their anthill. This text uses a red fall day to contrast the ants carrying food home with the grasshopper playing his fiddle. Colors switch again to white for a winter day when the grasshopper has to ask the ants if he can share their home. Ants ask the usual questions -- What were you doing all spring? All summer? All fall? but these ants wear knit woolen caps and hold snow-shovels! Their surprising next statement is To stay warm, you'll have to spend all winter playing! In this picture, they are singing, playing a violin, and shoveling snow. Moral: It is best to prepare for the days of necessity. What actually happens to the grasshopper is left undisclosed here. I like the style of these adaptations. I was inspired when I found The Fox and the Grapes in this series and immediately found and ordered the rest.