Aesop's Fables > Books of Fables > Series Books > Song Ngu Viet-Anh

Song Ngu Viet-Anh

 

2008 Tho va Rua: The Hare and the Tortoise. Paperbound. Hanoi: Song Ngu Viet-Anh: The Fables of Aesop: Donga. $9 from Ngoc Ta at us2you@vietshoppe.com, Nov., '12.

This is a fine bilingual booklet of 12 pages. The art is especially detailed and supportive of the text. The text appears in a few lines on each page. The English lacks capitals to start its sentences and sometimes is not idiomatic, as the moral exemplifies: "Perseverance wins the success." This hare is illustrated to show some strong moods, from his beginning aggressivity to his anger and disdain as he moves away from the starting line. His panic then in his frantic last effort and finally his disappointment are very well expressed. The back cover illustrates a fine looking series of "The Fables of Aesop" and I am making efforts to get the whole set.

2008 Cao va Co: The Fox and the Stork. Paperbound. Hanoi: Song Ngu Viet-Anh: The Fables of Aesop: Donga. $6.50 from Vietshoppe.com, Ann Arbor, MI, Feb., '13.

This pamphlet joins the eleven others in this series. Each is a fine bilingual booklet of 12 pages. The art is especially detailed and supportive of the text. The text appears in a few lines on each page. The English sometimes is not idiomatic, as when the fox serves "two shallow dishes of good-smelled soup" (4). These two were, the story's beginning tells us, "friends for a long time." That may be hard to reconcile with the story as it is told here. The stork has a marvelous expression of suppressed anger on 5. Also good is the fox's expression of hunger and frustration on 11. The line of this fox's mouth is unusually well defined. "You get what you give" (12). This entire pamphlet consists of double-page illustrations, all well done. The back cover illustrates the whole series of "The Fables of Aesop."

2008 Cao va De: The Fox and the Goat. Paperbound. Hanoi: Song Ngu Viet-Anh: The Fables of Aesop: Donga. $6.50 from Vietshoppe.com, Ann Arbor, MI, Feb., '13.

This pamphlet joins the eleven others in this series. Each is a fine bilingual booklet of 12 pages. The art is especially detailed and supportive of the text. The text appears in a few lines on each page. The English sometimes is not idiomatic, as when the story starts saying that "the fox carelessly fell down to a deep well" (1). In this version, there is no elaborate ruse getting the goat to stand against the well's wall. Rather, the fox simply jumps onto the goat's head and springs up from there. The laughing fox on 11 is as well depicted as the scheming fox on the cover as he looks up to the goat outside the well. This entire pamphlet consists of double-page illustrations, all well done. The back cover illustrates the whole series of "The Fables of Aesop." 

2008 Enhuong va Bo: The Bullfrog and the Cow. Paperbound. Hanoi: Song Ngu Viet-Anh: The Fables of Aesop: Donga. $6.50 from Vietshoppe.com, Ann Arbor, MI, Feb., '13.

This pamphlet joins the eleven others in this series. Each is a fine bilingual booklet of 12 pages. The art is especially detailed and supportive of the text. The text appears in a few lines on each page. The English sometimes is not idiomatic, as in the moral: "Know limitation of yourself before doing a thing." Two scenes are particularly well rendered here. The first (2-3) depicts the cow's stepping on frogs inadvertently. Several lie dead and one is just being squeezed without the cow knowing anything about it. The second is the explosion scene (10-11). This entire pamphlet consists of double-page illustrations, all well done. The back cover illustrates the whole series of "The Fables of Aesop." 

2008 Echdoi co Vua: The Frogs Asking for a King. Paperbound. Hanoi: Song Ngu Viet-Anh: The Fables of Aesop: Donga. $6.50 from Vietshoppe.com, Ann Arbor, MI, Feb., '13.

This pamphlet joins the eleven others in this series. Each is a fine bilingual booklet of 12 pages. The art is especially detailed and supportive of the text. The text appears in a few lines on each page. The English sometimes is not idiomatic, as in the several references to "The God." The moral is surprising: "The endless demand may turnout wrong." In this version, there is no third request because there are no frogs left to make it! The menacing look on the stork on the front cover and on 10-11 is especially well done. As in the other members of the series, the art is lively. This entire pamphlet consists of double-page illustrations, all well done. The back cover illustrates the whole series of "The Fables of Aesop." 

2008 Dieuhau va Sonca: The Hawk and the Nightingale. Paperbound. Hanoi: Song Ngu Viet-Anh: The Fables of Aesop: Donga. $6.50 from Vietshoppe.com, Ann Arbor, MI, Feb., '13.

This pamphlet joins the eleven others in this series. Each is a fine bilingual booklet of 12 pages. The art is especially detailed and supportive of the text. The text appears in a few lines on each page. The English sometimes is not idiomatic, as in when the nightingale, begging for her chicks' lives, addresses the hawk as "the great hawk." English does not use the article there. The moral is also surprising in form: "The man who harms other will be harmed in return." Here a hunter hears the pleading mother and mortally wounds the attacking hawk, who has just expressed himself dissatisfied with the mother's song. Earlier he had promised that a good song from her would protect her chicks. As in the other pamphlets of this series, the art is strong and dynamic. Here the two central pictures (6-7 and 8-9) express this dynamism well in the hawk's attack and the arrow's thrust, respectively. This entire pamphlet consists of double-page illustrations, all well done. The back cover illustrates the whole series of "The Fables of Aesop." 

2008 Sur tu va Chuot: The Lion and the Mouse. Paperbound. Hanoi: Song Ngu Viet-Anh: The Fables of Aesop: Donga. $9 from Vietshoppe.com, Ann Arbor, MI, Jan., '13.

This pamphlet joins Tho va Rua: The Hare and the Tortoise in a series of twelve which I am trying to get. Two down and ten to go! Like its mate, this is a fine bilingual booklet of 12 pages. The art is especially detailed and supportive of the text. The text appears in a few lines on each page. The English sometimes is not idiomatic, as when the mouse means to address the lion and says "The great lion, it was an accident" (5). This lion is illustrated to show strong moods. His capture of the mouse is narrated on one set of pages and illustrated in the next. In fact, this entire pamphlet consists of double-page illustrations, all well done. The text picks up well on the mouse's recognizing the lion's roar (10). The back cover again illustrates the fine looking series of "The Fables of Aesop."

2008 Lura, Ga Trong va Sutu: The Ass, the Cock and the Lion. Paperbound. Hanoi: Song Ngu Viet-Anh: The Fables of Aesop: Donga. $6.50 from Vietshoppe.com, Ann Arbor, MI, Feb., '13.

This pamphlet joins the eleven others in this series. Each is a fine bilingual booklet of 12 pages. The art is especially detailed and supportive of the text. The text appears in a few lines on each page. The English sometimes is not idiomatic, as in the run-on sentence "The cock saw the lion therefore it crew loudly" (4). In this version, there is no appeal to a lion's fear of roosters. Rather, the lion hears the peculiar combination of these two voices and goes away. Then the ass pursues. There is a dramatic rendition on 10-11 of the lion turning on and overwhelming the ass. A final small picture on 12 shows the cock perched on the ass's fleshless rib cage. The paper used in this copy is creased, and pages 2-3 are poorly matched at the crease between them. Except for the beginning and ending single pages, this entire pamphlet consists of double-page illustrations, all well done. The back cover illustrates the whole series of "The Fables of Aesop." 

2008 Ngura va Sutu: The Horse and the Lion. Paperbound. Hanoi: Song Ngu Viet-Anh: The Fables of Aesop: Donga. $6.50 from Vietshoppe.com, Ann Arbor, MI, Feb., '13.

This pamphlet joins the eleven others in this series. Each is a fine bilingual booklet of 12 pages. The art is especially detailed and supportive of the text. The text appears in a few lines on each page. In this version, the old lion proclaims that he has a magic drug that "can cure all sickness" (3). Pages 4-5 offer a chilling illustration of the result for a deer. The horse comes of his own accord to outwit the lion. The booklet's most dramatic illustration on 10-11 shows the two-hoof kick to the jaw of the lion. An excellent moral proclaims simply "Diamond cuts diamond." Except for the beginning and ending single pages, this entire pamphlet consists of double-page illustrations, all well done. The back cover illustrates the whole series of "The Fables of Aesop." 

2008 Qua va Daibang: The Crow and the Eagle. Paperbound. Hanoi: Song Ngu Viet-Anh: The Fables of Aesop: Donga. $6.50 from Vietshoppe.com, Ann Arbor, MI, Feb., '13.

This pamphlet joins the eleven others in this series. Each is a fine bilingual booklet of 12 pages. The art is especially detailed and supportive of the text. The text appears in a few lines on each page. The art of this presentation emphasizes, starting from the cover's dramatic picture, the relative disproportionateness of the perpetrators. And the art dramatizes the way that the second sheep's wool catches the claws of the crow. That picture (6-7) expresses well the surprise that would come over the grass-munching sheep as the crow alights and gets stuck. As the crow with its wings cropped is handed over -- amidst crow tears -- to the shepherd's son on 10-11, the child hears the answer to its question about what kind of bird it is. "This is the crow who thinks it is the eagle." Except for the beginning and ending single pages, this entire pamphlet consists of double-page illustrations, all well done. The back cover illustrates the whole series of "The Fables of Aesop." 

2008 Cau Be Chan Cuu: The Shepherd Boy. Paperbound. Hanoi: Song Ngu Viet-Anh: The Fables of Aesop: Donga. $6.50 from Vietshoppe.com, Ann Arbor, MI, Feb., '13.

This pamphlet joins the eleven others in this series. Each is a fine bilingual booklet of 12 pages. The art is especially detailed and supportive of the text. The text appears in a few lines on each page. The English sometimes is not idiomatic, as in this sentence: "One day, for being bored of watching the sheep, he thought a plan to get some excitement" (2). The art makes the boy in the early illustrations wonderfully lively and frisky. This version, after he plays the trick "several times," has a whole pack of wolves attack his sheep. They destroy them all. Except for the beginning and ending single pages, this entire pamphlet consists of double-page illustrations, all well done. The back cover illustrates the whole series of "The Fables of Aesop." 

2008 Hai Con De: The Two Goats. Paperbound. Hanoi: Song Ngu Viet-Anh: The Fables of Aesop: Donga. $6.50 from Vietshoppe.com, Ann Arbor, MI, Feb., '13.

This pamphlet joins the eleven others in this series. Each is a fine bilingual booklet of 12 pages. The art is especially detailed and supportive of the text. The text appears in a few lines on each page. The English sometimes is not idiomatic, as on the key page, where this version also has its own special story development: "The violent fighting made the old bridge swung very hard till split away" (10-11). I think that this is the first time I have read that the bridge was destroyed by their encounter. These two goats are leaders of herds. The artist puts great expressions on the faces of the tumbling goats, as he had put great anger and determination on them on the cover. The last page offers an unusual glimpse of the two exhaling underwater. Except for the beginning and ending single pages, this entire pamphlet consists of double-page illustrations, all well done. The back cover illustrates the whole series of "The Fables of Aesop."