Creighton University

This sturdy hard-cover book announces the moral of its fable not only on the cover but on its first story page.  This version has the boy watching sheep near a dark forest.  "It was lonely and boring watching sheep all day" (8).  In this version, the farmers he first summoned "stayed to talk with the boy.  They wanted to be sure he and his flock were all right.  The boy liked this very much" (12).  This boy is thus not the joker often presented in the story.  What is lacking in this version is any indication that the boy laughs at the farmers or owns up to a trick.  It is the very experience of useless summoning that turns the farmers against the boy.  "The hungry wolf had a very good meal" (20).  Besides the strong and simple colored illustrations on right-hand pages, there are appropriate designs beneath the text on the left-hand pages.

This title represents the third of the collection of thirteen that I have been able to find.  This sturdy hard-cover book not only announces the moral of its fable on the cover but gives it the whole first story page.  "When people cannot get what they want, they sometimes tell themselves that what they way is no good anyway."  This may be the most careful and sensible moral I have seen for a fable that receives many quite diverse morals.  Besides the strong and simple colored illustrations on right-hand pages, there are appropriate designs beneath the text on the left-hand pages.  Best among the illustrations may be the final one, as the fox turns away "huffing" with turned up nose.  Then there is a page on Aesop, a page on fables, and a page on author and artist.

This sturdy hard-cover book announces the moral of its fable not only on the cover but on its first story page.  This version for the Americas makes a point that "the maid had learned to carry the pail by balancing it on her head" (8) and, to judge from the illustration, this carrying is seen as something of a feat.  This version goes immediately from chickens and eggs to the blue dress the maid has wanted, which is pictured in high court fashion in the incongruous rustic surroundings on 15.  Her head toss here is to the jealous local girls of her imagination.  In this version, she has to tell her parents what has happened.  In the final picture, as mother explains to her that she should not make plans on things that have not yet happened, a cat is licking up milk from around the maid's shoes.  Besides the strong and simple colored illustrations on right-hand pages, there are appropriate designs beneath the text on the left-hand pages.

Having found five books in the collection, I ordered the final seven from the publisher.  This sturdy hard-cover book announces the moral of its fable as the whole first story page: "Prepare today for what you might need tomorrow.”  The ant worked hard and regularly.  Her back ached and her feet were sore.  The grasshopper urged the hard working ant to “sit and enjoy the day, like me.”  In winter, the grasshopper, wearing a lovely scarf, started at the ant’s door by saying “You were right, friend Ant.  I am hungry and cold.  I should have worked harder and gotten ready for winter.  May I please have something to eat?”  (“gotten”?)  The ant let the poor grasshopper inside.  She dried his clothes by the fire and offered him a hearty meal.  Then she softly expressed to him the stated moral.  The ant’s response is surprising, as is the grasshopper’s request.  “Think About It” (21) asks well what the ant felt watching the grasshopper play during summer.  It also asks well whether the reader would have welcomed the grasshopper in and fed him.  The illustrations fit a young audience well.

Having found five books in the collection, I ordered the final seven from the publisher.  This sturdy hard-cover book announces the moral of its fable as the whole first story page: "Thinking up good ideas can be easier than acting on them.”  The telling of the story diverges from more frequent versions on several points.  These mice live in the country and are attacked, according to the texts and pictures, in the grass.  The version names particular mice, including Grandmother and Grandfather Mouse.  The issue here is made clear when Grandmother Mouse raises the question “So, who will tie the bell around the cat’s neck?”  The author comments “Tying a bell on the hungry cat was going to be a very dangerous task.”  And so this version has various people making various excuses.   “Think About It” (21) asks well whether the reader ever came up with an idea to solve a problem – and whether he or she acted on the idea.  “Would you have been brave enough to put the bell on the cat?”  The illustrations fit a young audience well.

This title represents the fifth of the collection that I have been able to find.  This sturdy hard-cover book announces the moral of its fable as the whole first story page: "A simple, peaceful life is better than a rich one filled with dangers.”  “Think About It” (21) points out that each mouse likes where he lives.  Might that observation favor a different moral?  In this version, the city mouse is bored after a few days in the country.  The city mouse leads his cousin to the city kitchen, where they find cookies, cakes, fruit, and cheese.  Soon comes a cat, chased by a dog.  Petelinsek does an especially good job including and rendering the hands of the two mice in her illustrations.  As I wrote about “The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing,” our first three books in this collection were published in 2011.  Since then, "Children's Illustrated Classics" seems to have become "Storytime Tales."  The Peterson Publishing Company is no longer mentioned, nor is Mankato.  One has to wince about this sentence in “About the Illustrator” on 24: “Today her and her husband still have several pets, but no mice – just two dogs, one kitty, and four chickens.”

Having found five books in the collection, I ordered the final seven from the publisher.  This sturdy hard-cover book announces the moral of its fable as the whole first story page: "Those who compliment you might only be seeking something for themselves.”  I notice two elements not usually found in the story.  The story begins by describing the crow’s fascination with himself.  The story sets us up – perhaps too directly – to expect the crow to be proud and even gullible.  The fox at the end simply thanks the crow and goes his way.  It is left to two chipmunks speaking to each other to articulate the moral.   “Think About It” (21) here asks simpler questions than sometimes in this series.  For example, “Was the fox being honest in his compliments?”  Beacon’s last two foxes are her best work in the series so far: he becomes more stylized.  And by the way, the fox here is male and the crow female.

Having found five books in the collection, I ordered the final seven from the publisher.  This sturdy hard-cover book announces the moral of its fable as the whole first story page: "Treat others as you would want to be treated.”  Several things strike me in this version.  Beacon continues what I saw at the end of FC: both characters here become more stylized, a step or two in the direction of Pierre Perret’s geometric figures.  It fits the story well!  Beacon wisely has both cooks preparing delicious food in large containers where the guest can see and smell how good it is.  I notice also that Berendes presents the fox as male and the stork as female.I am confused by the story’s statement of the stork’s difficulty with the fox’s stew: “Her narrow beak was too long to reach her bowl.”  Maybe her neck is too long?  How can her beak be too long?  The parallel comment works better: The fox’s “nose was far too short and wide for the jar.”  Beacon makes a good choice to present tall thin cylindrical flutes rather than jars.   “Think About It” (21) here asks two questions about the stork’s experience.  Is there not something to probe in the fox’s experience?

Having found five books in the collection, I ordered the final seven from the publisher.  This sturdy hard-cover book announces the moral of its fable as the whole first story page: "Being too picky might leave you with nothing at all.”  This may be the best of the morals yet in this series!  The beginning of the story paints the heron as a proud, special bird.  His first find, perch, was “far too boring a meal for such a fine bird as myself!”  Next, the trout were too much trouble to catch.  The minnows were too tiny and bony.  And the carp too scaly.  As darkness fell, he gulped down a small, brown snail.  The fish laughed at the proud bird’s tiny, tasteless meal.  On the last page of text, we learn of a wise toad who had been watching the heron all day.  He pronounces the moral.  This version runs through good options.  It adds three features worth wondering about.  It makes the heron proud as well as picky.  It has the fish laugh at him at the end.  And it adds an unannounced frog to articulate the moral.  Think About It” (21) asks the right question: “How would the heron’s dinner have been different if he hadn’t been so picky?”  Petelinsek has a gift for sharpening realistic focus on specific elements in her illustrations, like both the trout and the splashing water on 11.

Having found five books in the collection, I ordered the final seven from the publisher.  This sturdy hard-cover book announces the moral of its fable as the whole first story page: "A good deed should be returned.”  This mouse is bringing home food for her family.  She wears, appropriately, an apron.  Tired, she comes across “a large brown log,” which turns out to be the lion’s paw.  Her appeal to the lion is, first, that she would be a small meal.  But she also says “And my poor children will wonder where I am.  And you never know, I might be able to help you one day.”  The lion answers that he cannot see how she would ever be able to help, but, since she made him laugh, she can go free.  When she has freed him, he asks “Why did you bother to help me?”  “You were kind to me,” comes the answer, “and I had the chance to be kind and help you.”  She then pronounces the moral.  Think About It” (21) asks ”How does it make you feel when you do something to help another person?”  We might ask whether our kindness needs to be reciprocal.  The picture of the tired yawn is wonderful!  So is the later close-up of the mouse gnawing the net.

Having found five books in the collection, I ordered the final seven from the publisher.  This sturdy hard-cover book announces the moral of its fable as the whole first story page: "A slow and steady pace is sometimes the best.”  I commend Berendes for including “sometimes” in a moral that does not otherwise relate well to reality.  The hare, unprompted, accuses the old, wrinkled tortoise of being the slowest animal that ever lived.  They race around a nearby pond.  The hare decides “to rest in the shade to let the tortoise catch up.”  That decision seems questionable to me.  The fox, who was the race’s starter, declares the moral at the end.  The best of the illustrations may be the key moment where the tortoise passes the sleeping hare.  By the way, this tortoise is female while the hare is male.

This title represents the fourth of the collection that I have been able to find.  This sturdy hard-cover book announces the moral of its fable as the whole first story page.  "Don't pretend to be something you're not, for you'll be found out in the end."  Nancy Harrison does a very good job of making this wolf look like a sheep, as is already evident on the book's cover.  Some versions have the shepherd take this "sheep" for his meal the first day that the wolf is there; this version, by contrast, has the wolf getting fat on eating many sheep.  It is the wolf's plumpness that attracts the hungry shepherd.  There are pages given to reflection, to Aesop, to fables, and to author and artist.  Our first three books in this collection were published in 2011.  Since then, "Children's Illustrated Classics" seems to have become "Storytime Tales."  The Peterson Publishing Company is no longer mentioned, nor is Mankato.