La Fontaine

Abstract

This large-format book presents 34 fables on 134 pages with a T of C at the end. The series title: "The most beautiful stories, the greatest fiction writers," is specified on the back cover as seven other authors are listed, none of them fabulists. I chose Brussels as a place to stop on this trip because I hoped for books of fables in languages other than the most usual ones, but I did not expect to find Polish there! Our collection has twenty-nine other books illustrated by Severino Baraldi, most of them in Tormont collections like "The Treasure Chest of Great Fairy Tales." The illustrations are large, animated, and engaging. They seem familiar. A typical example has the shepherd and his dog running after the wolf disguised as a shepherd on 28. There is a great dramatization of MSA on 41 and likewise a good dramatization of SS on 51. Another good dramatization is of TB on 70 to 71. Baraldi offers a helpful visualization of the fox and the goat in the well an 85 through 88. On 104 the visualization of the frog and the mouse has the predatory bird catching the string that lofts both of them. One last strong illustration has the horse knocking the teeth out of the wolf on 122 and 23.