Creighton University

Here is one of three books in a series that includes "manualidades" -- handicrafts generally -- and a scissors on the cover of each book.  The "handicraft" consists in cutting out parts for and then assembling a representation of each of the characters.  This version of TMCM spends time on the style of life of each mouse.  The country mouse lives a contented life of cultivating his garden and enjoying simple pleasures.  The town mouse lives in a dumpster and is habituated to the smells of rotten fish and old vegetables.  The latter visits his country cousin and reacts negatively as soon as the latter offers him some of the day's fruits of his garden.  "Ay, primito, mio, qué mal vives!"  After a few days, the country cousin comes to the city, and the two enjoy a banquet on Swiss cheese, dates, and honey.  A fruit delivery man interrupts and almost inadvertently breaks their necks.  The country mouse loses his appetite but they return to the feast -- but a cat appears and wants to pounce on them.  After a long wait in a hole, the country mouse goes off, admitting that his food is not as good but happy to be able to run away from the city's dangers.  The final story illustration on 19 gives a good idea of the cartoon illustration style, strong on blocks of vivid color.  The two mice are constructed using colored paper, a scissors, glue, and colored pencils.

Here is one of three books in a series that includes "manualidades" -- handicrafts generally -- and a scissors on the cover of each book.  The "handicraft" consists in fashioning a representation of each of the characters.  This version of GA starts with the ants and their song while they work marching in a column.  The artist's style is unique in several ways.  He enjoys picturing musical notes, as when the grasshopper sings in front of a music stand and a microphone -- apparently for only his own pleasure inside the studio (9).  Aranda also combines drawing with photography skillfully, as when the drawn ants gather around pictured furniture in winter (7).  That furniture even includes a telephone!  His art form tends to exaggerate head sizes.  This grasshopper is quite defensive and outspoken when an ant challenges him: "Don't you like my singing?  I'll have just as much to eat when winter comes."  When winter does come, the musical notes lie in disorder in the snow underneath and around the hungry grasshopper.  I read the French to say that the ant tries to teach him a lesson by telling him to dance to get over the cold.  The two characters are constructed using modelling clay, paper clips, and toilet paper.

Here is one of three books in a series that includes "manualidades" -- handicrafts -- and a scissors on the cover of each book.  The "handicraft" consists in fashioning a representation of each of the characters.  This version of "The Lion and the Mosquito" leaves out the usual second phase of the story, in which the victorious but arrogant mosquito flies right into a spider's web!  All the creatures of the forest try to give King Lion a sense of not lording it over others.  The mosquito, among the smallest creatures in the forest, takes him on.  The challenge of the mosquito makes the lion laugh, but the last illustration shows the bandaged nose that the lion gets for his trouble.  The two characters are among the more complicated to construct in this series of books.