Aesop’s Fables
Kees Morbeek, Chris Beatrice and Bruce Whately

Simon and Schuster
December 2010/ ISBN 9781847389596
Fiction / Juvenile 4-8
Amazon US || UK

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde

The subtitle for this book is “A pop-up book of classic tales,” and this sums it up well enough, but lift up the cover and you are in for a special surprise. I enjoy my own experiments with paper engineering and have made various greetings cards in this manner, but this is a particularly impressive example of the craft. Open the sturdy board covers, and a huge goose leaps out at you, complete with shiny golden egg. Move the mouse aside to see the moral of the tale, and unfold the story flaps to reveal not only words but also another pop-up image.

Cheerful and bright without being gaudy, this 14-page book introduces the child to nine of the best-known fables, plus a brief description of who Aesop himself might have been. Other fables include the tortoise and the hare, the lion and the mouse, and the one about the busy ants and lazy grasshopper. The illustrations are set during a number of different periods, so the goose’s owners are mediaeval, the man the wind and the sun are fighting over wears a frock coat, while the lion is caught by big game hunters in classic hunter attire on the African plains. Of course there are many other fables not covered here, but I cannot think of a better introduction for a young child than this beautifully illustrated and engineered book. One for anybody’s keeper shelf.

Reviewer's Note: