Creighton University

FS is told and illustrated in straightforward and clear prose.  "What you do to others may be done to you."  In "The Lion and the Fox," the fox declares "It's a trap!  Those with a mean streak never change!"  In DS, even during the proceeding, there is a statement -- perhaps coming from the dog's reflection in the river -- "Don’t' be fooled!"  Nine stiff cardboard pages inside similar cardboard covers, 6¼" square.

WL is told and illustrated in straightforward and clear prose, including its stark ending.  It begins with the question "Is the strongest always right?" and goes through only two rounds of accusation: about dirty water and insults.  TMCM is true to La Fontaine, beginning with the invitation to a city meal that is disrupted and closing with an invitation tomorrow to a country meal.  GGE is told succinctly but without any mention of the farmer's killing the poor hen!  Among the text in this series are larger-typeface bolded comments made apparently by the narrator, not by the characters.  In such a short space, that practice can be confusing.  Nine stiff cardboard pages inside similar cardboard covers, 6¼" square.

This book opens with a surprise by presenting not OF but UP as its first story, which concludes “It’s a sweet pleasure to see a deceiver take her leave!”  (The fox here has been referred to as masculine, so the feminine in this comment is a bit surprising.)  “The Lion Grown Old” finishes with the sick old lion’s comment to the donkey: “Oh, no!  To be bested by you would be twice the defeat!”  OF uses La Fontaine’s measure of the frog’s size: an egg.  This version has only the ox and the frog.  The ox responds that the frog has gotten big.  “But that’s enough now, friend!”  There is no more conversation, but only puffing and bursting.  Nine stiff cardboard pages inside similar cardboard covers, 6¼" square.

AD is told and illustrated in straightforward and clear prose.  Books for children do well to turn to this fable, one of the rather few about helping someone in need.  BF has a magpie dressed as a peacock.  “There are many magpies in the world who would like to wear the plumage of someone else: they only know how to copy others!”  FWT has a fox not hiding its loss of tail but claiming “You all should cut your own tails off as well!”  The other foxes simply “walked away, laughing heartily.”  Nine stiff cardboard pages inside similar cardboard covers, 6¼" square.