The Oracle's Fables: Life Lessons for Children Inspired by Warren Buffett
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Authors
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Issue Date
2015
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Book, Whole
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Abstract
Life Lessons for children based on quotes from the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett. Fourteen fables get each a two-page spread, with an illustration on one page and a text on the other. The first fable is a good exemplar: The Mice, The Beaver and Old Man Winter. The mice refuse the beaver's offer of a dam and trust to winter's ice. The latter gives them a good bridge in winter but sweeps them away in spring. A second fable, The Frog and The Snake, has a frog seeking better territory but then returning home only to find a snake has inhabited his den. Never risk what you have and need for what you don't have and don't need (4). Good advice! In a fable similar to TMCM, a young raccoon setting out meets an old raccoon, whose life in the city was good but destructive for him. The young raccoon thanks him and goes into the forest rather than the city. The story of an overeager badger concludes with this lovely moral: The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging (8). A bear learns from a fellow bear mauled by bees to seek berries instead. The author cleverly puts Buffett's good advice into the story of a small sea turtle ready to break out of his shell and make a dash for the sea: Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful (12). A stray puppy becomes a trusted pet over years and then bites the farmer's hand. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that you'll do things differently (15). A later gem is this: Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future (16). The Three Fish (20) is vintage Aesop: Middle-sized fish urges big fish to stop eating the little fish, which he himself wants to eat, and to go after middle sized fish. So big fish immediately eats middle fish. The final fable, The Greedy Queen Bee, finishes with this moral: If you're in the luckiest one percent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 percent (29). The art is, I would say, adequate. This book is more engaging than I thought it would be.
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Publisher
Taylor Specialty Books
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Identifier
10562 (Access ID)