Creighton University

Here is a lively eight-page presentation of an Aesopic fable less often told.  The basic story line is that a rabbit outruns a hunting dog because one is running for his life while the other is running only for his food.  Here the story is filled out with a long section on how much this dog loves the smell -- and therefore the taste -- of rabbit.  The chase has almost brought the hunter upon the hunted, when the dog seizes on what he thinks is the rabbit or his hiding place, but it is only an empty nest fallen from a tree.  The artist fills out the pictures by adding funny little animals like birds on 5 riding a bicycle and drinking from a mug or by giving the pursuing dog on 6 a knife and fork in his front paws.

Here is a lively eight-page presentation of BC. It all starts outside of a home as mice are stealing a huge ham.  The cat catches one of them.  Soon they use all sorts of modern media to announce a meeting of mice: letters, phones, cell phones, and computers.  The meetings are large, complete with political anti-cat signs.  On the last page the cat watches from a tree branch as the mice disperse.  The last line describes the "problema: Es que proponer soluciones es facil, lo difícil es ponerlas en práctica."

Here is a lively eight-page presentation of GA.  Both figures are dressed in human clothes.  The grasshopper plays an electric guitar hooked up to a loudspeaker with a mouth that comes right out of its box!  Other insects are jumping and jiving to his music!  Pages 3 and 4 present a stark contrast between summer and winter.  The ant here actually considers that the grasshopper might not pay her back.  Asked what he did all summer, the grasshopper first answers that he spent it in the shade of trees.  The next answer, "I sang day and night" does not have La Fontaine's crucial phrase "for the pleasure of others."  "The lazy and careless will always end up poor and needy."

Here is a lively eight-page presentation of "The Lion and the Fox."  This lion wears himself out hunting but catches nothing.  His cave is surprising.  A turtle is his footstool, and a flamingo seems to be a lamp!  "This is the last straw!  I am as tired as a burro!"  He sends out many letters through the monkey postman to fulfill his plan of eating without working.  At first he gobbles up the little animals that respond to his invitation: frogs, weasels, rabbits.  Once the fox makes her observation about the footsteps going in and coming out, she runs away fast enough to outdistance the pursuing lion and tells all the animals about his plan.  He has to work to gain his sustenance, like all the rest of us.

Here is a lively eight-page presentation of story of a flea who tries to better herself by leaving the flea-crowded dog she inhabits with relatives.  She chooses a camel and thinks she is a queen as this camel leads a caravan into the desert.  There the camel complains to his owner, who wonders if his cargo is too much for him.  "No!  That flea is too much for me" seems to be the response.  The flea is left alone in the middle of the desert.  The fable seems to warn against thinking too much of ourselves: we only become ridiculous in the eyes of others.

Here is a lively eight-page presentation of GGE.  The central human being here is a poor old man who has only this hen.  This hen changes, for no known reason, one day and starts producing golden eggs.  The owner adds to his house and buys new clothes.  The last illustration shows the hen cut in half, with one half in either hand of the poor pipe-smoking greedy old man.  Yes, this story helps "recordar los peligros de la ambición desmedida."

Here is a lively eight-page presentation of BW.  There is a new element added here.  After his first two pranks, the people of the town sit the shepherd down to tell him that it is not good to play with people's trust.  Then the real threat comes, and they pay him no heed.  A typical Gelmi illustration might be the last: the wolf carries off one sheep and chases another.  Several of the pages are cut poorly.  No margins exist where a margin should exist.