The Fox and the Stork and The Man, His Son and the Ass

Abstract

This volume belongs to a set of eight large 8½ x 9½ pamphlets illustrated by Biro, most containing one longer and one shorter story. Each page contains a head-line which repeats above the illustration part of what will be written just below it on the same page. Apparently this method is meant to offer help to the intended audience of first readers, mentioned on the back cover. Biro's style remains engaging, and he explains important elements of the story well. Thus, at the fox's dinner, the absence of spoons--which the stork would be too polite to ask for--is mentioned. I do not think that I have seen spoons mentioned in this story before. Similarly, the stork knows that the fox is too polite to pick up his jug and tip the meat into his mouth. The faces which Biro gives to the stork on the title-page and to the fox on the story's last page are excellent. The workmen in MSA suggest that a donkey is good for carrying two people, and thus the double load is here not an original idea of the man. After each encounter, the man (not identified as a miller here) thinks that he should please the person who has given him advice. Both father and son wear turban-like headgear. At the end, they fall into the water with the donkey.