Aesop's Fables

Abstract

This is a 96-page pamphlet measuring 8½ x 11, with a cover showing a fox reading FC. There are twenty-seven fables included. Texts and simple illustrations, sometimes fully colored and sometimes of two colors, are often integrated into the same space. After each fable space is given to questions about the fable under headings like Do you know? and Do you remember? Some fables have a section for a scripture verse or a reflective question (Think about it). There is a T of C at the front. In The Fox and the Lion (7), the lion is surprised at the fox the third time they meet, so surprised that he stops his roar. Does good English say as best he could (15)? The Battle of the Birds and the Beasts (21) takes a curious approach to the fable. The bat is introduced as a coward who attempts to join each side in turn when it is winning, but is rejected by the beasts because he is a bird and by the birds because he is a beast. He denies it in each case. This version follows the wrong order of events. Let him come and be accepted but then change sides, and we will know that he is a coward! The rat who sees the elephant is not only chased but eaten by the cat, who has nothing to do with the elephant (30). The crow in CP first tries to tip the pitcher and to put a hole in it before he gets his bright idea (34). Not a fowler but a bad boy with a stone threatens the dove in The Bee and the Dove (43). The provoking statement in TT is Who was so wise to think of that? It was indeed the turtle, and he lets it be known (52). The Cat and the Fox (55) teaches that One good plan is better than a hundred tricks. In CJ (86) the rooster finds not a jewel but a piece of gold. GA (88) deals with plural grasshoppers. Most of the answers are pencilled in. See a later edition in 1979 and a teacher's edition in 1988, for both of which the title has become Aesop's Fables for young readers.