cover image Aesop's Fables

Aesop's Fables

Robert Mathias. Silver Burdett Press, $0 (72pp) ISBN 978-0-382-09161-2

Over 2000 years ago, a clever and witty Greek slave named Aesop told stories about human frailties, most of them masked as confrontations between two or more animals. Many of the tales told here are familiar (""The Boy Who Cried Wolf,'' ``The Hare & the Tortoise,'' etc.); others are not so well known. But all have that inevitable italicized moral at the end. Mathias's retellings will delight adults, with phrases that roll off the tongue, but children may not fare as well, especially with turns of phrase like ``clambered nimbly.'' The book's design is impeccable, using delicate borders and alternating color and black-and-white drawings. Franklin's art has an endearing, old-fashioned quality, while Rutherford's drawings, with their areas of solid black, are striking. (All ages)