Aesop was a slave who lived in Greece during the mid-sixteenth century BC. He purportedly lived at the court of Croesus and eventually died by execution after passing on many fables in an oral fashion.
Jean de la Fontaine was a French writer and poet who lived in the seventeenth century AD. He drew immense inspiration from Aesop to compose his own fables, most of them written over 26 years, often in the form of poems.
Two collections of fables, the first of Aesop's and the second of La Fontaine's, will be cherished by contemporary children for their simplicity of storyline and compelling conclusions.
Aesop's Fables (Brimax Books 1991)
This hard cover edition of Aesop's fables are retold by Graeme Kent and illustrated in whimsical watercolours by Tessa Hamilton. Most of them deal with animal protagonists, such as the famous ones of "The Lion and the Mouse," "The Hare and the Tortoise" and "The Dog and his Reflection."
The first of these fables focuses on a lion who decides not to eat a mouse. For his benevolence, the mouse later gnaws through the net in which the lion has been trapped, freeing him. The moral is underlined in italics in a box below the picture, in this case, "Sometimes the weak are able to help the strong." With the latter two tales, the morals are "Slow and steady can win the race" and "Be content with what you have."
Such summations of plot delivered in an ethical context can give the parent the opportunity to discuss these kinds of situations in their child's lives in terms of how courage or patience or greed are enacted in the child's everyday life.
Some of these fables also deal with human protagonists, like "A Man and His Sons" and "The Boasting Traveller."
The Turtle and the Two Ducks: Animal Fables Retold from La Fontaine (Thomas H Crowell, 1981)
This collection of short fables, drawn from Aesop, are not only retold by La Fontaine but have further been transformed from poetry to prose by Patricia Plante and David Bergman. Designed for the younger reader, the illustrations in this book are done in cartoon-style by the engaging talents of Anne Rockwell.
The language of these fables has been simplified. They are full of dialogue and humour. The morals are not placed at the end of the tales but are incorporated within the stories. For instance, instead of Aesop's "Hare and the Tortoise" which ends with the sombre: "Slow and steady wins the race," the La Fontaine version, called "The Turtle and the Rabbit" concludes with the rabbit exclaiming "But it wasn't fair!" as the turtle wins the race and the turtle exclaiming that indeed it was and that, next time, the complaining rabbit should try to race "the way [it] does," namely with its house on its back.
This compilation is also hardcover but of a smaller, lighter size than the coffee table style version of Aesop's Fables. All the stories are about animals, though characters like a barefoot boy and a shepherd also appear to further connect the children to these timeless tales.
Catherine Owen - Catherine Owen, MA 2001, has published ten award winning books of poetry/prose. Her writing is lyrical, well-researched and fully ...
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