Creighton University

This is a well-made pamphlet of 32 pages meant for children of 3+ years.  Each pair of pages has a paragraph in English and a corresponding paragraph in Spanish.  The first page is the inside of the front cover.  The Illustrations generally spread across two pages.  Still, on 15-16, the two pages seem to portray the tortoise passing the hare.  That event actually happens only on 19-20.  Hare in this version decided to take a nap.  The moral, stated by the tortoise to the hare, includes “Pride and laziness cost you the race.”  The tortoise gets the pronoun “it” throughout.  The artist puts special emphasis on the eyes of the animal characters.  The best illustration is of the yawning hare (11-12).  SThere is a classic dangling participle on 22: “Nearing the finish line, the hare woke up with a start….”  He is not nearing the line when he wakes up!

This is a well-made pamphlet of 32 pages meant for children of 3+ years.  Each pair of pages has a paragraph in English and a corresponding paragraph in Spanish.  The first page is the inside of the front cover.  The Illustrations generally spread across two pages.  This version of GA is focused on showing the shortcomings in the grasshopper’s attitude and behavior.  “Day after day, the grasshopper ate, drank, and played….”  In autumn, he “stayed immersed in his carefree ways.”  In winter, he regrets not preparing during the summer.  “I was wrong.  I should have worked like you to store food….”  The ants reluctantly supply some food to help him through the winter.  This pamphlet has another dangling participle: “The ants saw its pitiful state but remembered how it once scoffed at work, feeling somewhat resentful.”  Who is feeling resentful?  The sentence structure is saying that the grasshopper was resentful; is the author not saying that the ants were resentful?  “This tale shows that while enjoying the moment is fine, planning ahead is crucial.”  Most telling of the illustrations may be 7-8, which contrasts the eager grasshopper with the hard-working ants.  This series is unusual for inviting corrections of any errors “e.g., printing, layout, translation, word choice.”  The last two illustrations – not coordinated with each other – seem confusing.  What are we doing returning to the grasshopper’s summer playing?

This is a well-made pamphlet of 32 pages meant for children of 3+ years.  Each pair of pages has a paragraph in English and a corresponding paragraph in Spanish.  The first page is the inside of the front cover.  The Illustrations generally spread across two pages.  This version of FG mentions good alternatives the fox pursued to get the grapes: “standing on tiptoe, hooking the vine with its paw, even stacking a few stones to stand on.”  This version also puts into words the fox’s interior on departing: “Deep down, it knew it was belittling what it couldn’t have” (22).  And on 26: “The fox still felt a pang of regret and annoyance inside.”  The end of the booklet offers clear advice: “If a goal seems out of reach, we should either try harder or accept it gracefully, rather than belittle what we desire” (32).  This illustrator’s fox is as lively and engaging as any I have seen!  And the dismayed fox on 13-14 is excellent!  Strangely, the editor matches the author’s statement that the fox glared at the grapes with an image of the fox looking at the ground (15-16).

This is a well-made pamphlet of 32 pages meant for children of 3+ years.  Each pair of pages has a paragraph in English and a corresponding paragraph in Spanish.  The first page is the inside of the front cover.  The Illustrations generally spread across two pages.  This version of the story includes a family.  The family warns the farmer not to kill the goose.  “Don’t do this; you might lose everything.”  But he goes ahead and kills the goose.  I wonder about this moral: “Greed can make you lose what you already have.”  Does he lose what he already has?  Might we say rather that greed in this case cuts off our possibilities of having more?  The “already” does not seem to fit here.  Lively illustrations, as in the other pamphlets in this series.

This is a well-made pamphlet of 32 pages meant for children of 3+ years.  Each pair of pages has a paragraph in English and a corresponding paragraph in Spanish.  The first page is the inside of the front cover.  The Illustrations generally spread across two pages.  As is true in other volumes in this series, the cover adds a clever vignette to the names of the characters.  In this case, the dot on the letter “i” in “Lion” is a paw, and the space in the “o” in “Mouse” is a little head with ears.  In this version, the mouse stepped on the lion’s tail, apparently while both were moving about.   The lion’s reason for letting him go was “feeling the mouse was too small to bother with” (10).  The story reminds us “that kindness and cooperation have no size limits” (32).  The two best illustrations show the mouse pleading for his life (7-8) and gnawing through the ropes (21-22).