Creighton University

Slim-Jim the grasshopper here is an idle hippie.  He has his feet up on a sign "No work in summertime!"  He proclaims "I'm out on strike!"  The scatological side of this series comes up here with a chance character: "A dung bettle was busy too, rolling home a ball of poo."  "This poo will feed me for a year.  You think it smells?  Don't sit so near!"  Winter comes, and Slim-Jim staggers into the ants' home.  Antonia Ant sticks up for him, echoed by her young cousins.  She begs the queen to listen to him singing, and the queen relents.  Slim-Jim sings "I've been a silly lazy twit."  "Prepare yourself for days ahead Or else you might just end up dead!"  Rhyming couplets throughout.  48 pages.  5¼" x 8".

The boy in this version of BW watches sheep do mostly two things: chew grass and poo.  There is the recurrent scatological element of this series!  This boy thinks through the possibilities to counter his boredom, starting with announcing aliens.  The townsfolk are represented here by a dentist, a teacher, and the boy's parents.  The second time he cries "Wolf!" his parents are sure that he has learned his lesson: "It must be for real."  At the end of this version, the wolf swallows the boy whole!  Aesop is introduced on the first pages of each book in this series.  In this book he admonishes "Take care with sums and learn to spell and wash each day or else you'll smell."  Rhyming couplets throughout.  48 pages.  5¼" x 8".

Grey Mouse came to visit Mousy in the country.  Grey's dissatisfaction began when he found that Mousy's home stinks and when he stepped in some poo.  Grey extended his invitation and drove Mousy in his car to town.  There was a party going on in Grey's house and people were drinking in the lounge.  There were so many kinds of food and even many kinds of cheese!  Then a human being entered.  "Grey dived down, flat on his belly.  Mousy hid behind a jelly."  They had a narrow escape, only to be soon confronted by a cat.  Grey distracted the cat by tossing her a sausage after the cat had captured Mousy.  A guard dog distracted Grey's effort to keep Mousy in the city.  "She missed quiet meadows, hedges, trees . . . The stink of sheep poo on the breeze!  Aesop's moral now seems clear: Better poor in peace than rich in fear!"  Rhyming couplets throughout.  48 pages.  5¼" x 8".

As throughout this series, the interior of the book complements rhyming couplets with shaded black-and-white drawings.  Each booklet starts with an admonition from Aesop and regularly touches on something scatological that will appeal to young minds.  Here Aesop admonishes "Don't eat baked beans every day -- they soon pop out the other way!  If you make a smelly parp move off a bit and stand apart."  The couple in this version of GGE is money-hungry from the start.  The farmer wins the goose in a raffle and hopes for six regular eggs from her.  The story returns to bodily functions when the goose complains of the effort to lay a golden egg.  With their new cash, the farmer buys chickens and his wife shoes.  When he has killed the golden goose, his chickens fly away in fright.  Her shoes soon wear out.  48 pages.  5¼" x 8".

As throughout this series, the interior of the book complements rhyming couplets with shaded black-and-white drawings.  Each booklet starts with an admonition from Aesop and regularly touches on something scatological that will appeal to young minds.  Here Aesop admonishes "Do not flick bogeys from your nose.  Always clean between your toes.  Wash your hands each time you pee.  Do not put bugs in Grandma's tea."  The fox here is an acknowledged and even self-acknowledged trickster.  He has written the book "You've been foxed!"  Several pages into this booklet we learn that the stork is the narrator.  Fox invited the stork shortly after she flew into the territory.  Stork does a lot of talking at fox's lunch, which is served by moles.  The moral here is "You see, one bad turn brings another.  Don't play cruel jokes or tease each other.  The Aesop lesson you should learn is: horrid tricks are soon returned!"  48 pages.  5¼" x 8".

Torty here hides in his shell and hopes that the athletic Hare would just go away.  Hare persists in harassing Torty and so ends up initiating the suggestion of a race.  While Hare's athletic chums come to cheer him on, Torty also has his crew, koala bears and sloths.  This version has sweating Hare getting blistered feet during the long race while Torty remains cool.  Hare's thus sees his nap here a "breather."  Torty comments after the race finishes "I am not speedy, it is true, but I know how to SEE THINGS THROUGH."  The slightly scatological element here comes in the recipe for gym-loving Hare's athletic shake, including badger poo and weasel pee.  Rhyming couplets throughout.  48 pages.  5¼" x 8".

Tim the mouse is dreaming about soccer when he disturbs Leo's sleep.  The netting happens immediately after.  Leo asks as Tim shows up "I suppose you've come to laugh?"  Leo's net later becomes the net behind the soccer goal in Tim's game.  The slightly scatological element here comes as Tim is gnawing through the rope.  Leo says "Careful where you're nibbling, chum!  I don't want tooth marks on my bum!"  Rhyming couplets throughout.  48 pages.  5¼" x 8"