The Lion Classic Aesop's Fables - Hardcover

Margaret McAllister is an experienced author for children. She has written a number of books for leading publishers, and has been shortlisted for the Ottakar's Children's Book Prize. She specializes in historical fiction.Amanda Hall is an award-winning illustrator, particularly renowned for her wonderfully decorative and colourful children's book illustrations. She excels at capturing the visual worlds of different cultures, their peoples, animals and landscapes as well as their spiritual traditions. Amanda exhibits her original illustrations at Chris Beetles Gallery St James's, London.

Written as long as 2,500 years ago, Aesop’s fables are among the oldest stories still told, and their wit and wisdom hold up surprisingly well. In this handsome volume from the Lion Classic series, McAllister retells 29 of the tales, including some unfamiliar ones as well as old standbys. She fleshes out the bones of the fables with bits of dialogue, elaboration, and description before concluding each one in the traditional way, with a moral. Nicely composed and often richly colored, the illustrations add immensely to the book’s appeal. An appended note, called “Aunt Isa’s Bookshelf,” takes readers into the past to watch a girl named Margaret (presumably the author as a child) encountering Aesop’s fables for the first time, in a book without pictures or conversations, and thinking, “They don’t seem like stories. I’m sure I could make them more exciting than this.” Many lively, illustrated editions of Aesop’s fables are available, but larger libraries will want to include this attractive collection among them. Grades 2-4. --Carolyn Phelan