Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Taken individually, the 19 fables in this collection are tolerable retellings, but readers of a few will suffer acute rhyming-couplet overload. Bolt, a translator of Molière and Aristophanes, generally opens with a salutation ("You want a piece of good advice?/ There is no harm in being nice") and proceeds to a lesson in animal/human folly ("You shouldn't dish it out if you/ Aren't ready to receive it too," ends "The Fox and the Stork"). Along with standbys like the title fable and "The Grasshopper and the Ant," Bolt includes the tale of a wolf who envies a well-fed dog until he notices its collar ("With that, the wolf went on his way,/ Quite free, as he still is today"). The language can be oddly colloquial, as in "The Frogs," who "thought democratic rule/ (Their current system) wasn't cool." When the frogs demand a king, "Jove" sends first a log, then a frog-eating crane, but the moral to this political satire rings false ("Instead of hating what you've got,/ Try and be happy with your lot"). Potter's (Trudy and Pia) gouaches, awash with mossy greens, robin's-egg blues and tapestry hues, allude to La Fontaine's 17th century. Yet the stiff layouts, with long columns of text, make an awkward match with her delicate, flyaway style. Audiences will disengage quickly from the plodding poetry and repetitious page design. Ages 8-up. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6-Bolt translates and recasts La Fontaine's work in rhyming, contemporary English. "My tale's for you, you tricky folk-/Be warned, before you trick a bloke./You shouldn't dish it out if you/Aren't ready to receive it too." "The Fox and the Stork," "The Lion and the Rat," and other familiar tales appear among these 19 selections, along with a few that are less well known. La Fontaine seems to have extended the often-terse ancient versions through dialogue and added commentary on the characters and lessons, and Bolt conveys them in a cheerful, upbeat tone and phrasing. Potter's double-page, naive paintings echo the humor, effectively portraying the animal and human characters. The rhymed phrasing offers an entertaining introduction to the literature of fable and pleasing read-aloud and storytelling material. Only a bit of La Fontaine's extensive writing of fables is currently available for children, and this slim, attractive volume is a welcome companion to Edward Marsh's larger collection, Fables (Random, 2001).-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Primary, Intermediate) A much-practiced translator for the British stage presents nineteen fables selected from the renowned French poet's more than two hundred. As another translator, Norman R. Shapiro, has observed, La Fontaine (1621-1695) wrote ""irregular, seemingly...capricious vers libres""; Bolt takes a simpler path than La Fontaine's, using rhymed couplets and choosing to include some of the more accessible and familiar stories. Though the meter can be tricky when it strays from its otherwise strict iambic tetrameter (""He hummed a tune, did a headstand, / Anything but the task at hand""), skilled readers can adjust emphases to garner amusing tales with classic pro- and antagonists, entertaining dialogue laced with contemporary touches, and those ever-instructive, satisfying denouements. The verse takes center stage in Potter's full-bleed pages, where characters and other important story elements make a quiet, invitingly decorative complement. An introduction outlines the venerable history of La Fontaine's sources (notably Aesop and the Panchatantra); an ""Afterword"" poem offers a sort of supermoral: ""Do this, child, and your future life / Will have more joy in it than strife."" In a field long dominated by Aesop, this is an attractive, more courtly offering. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
