Aesop's Fables
Grade 2-5-Sneed has chosen 15 tales to retell and illustrate. The art, done in watercolor, colored pencil, and acrylic, is a standout. The animals, while realistically proportioned, are endowed with the character and personality that connect them to the human foibles that the tales illuminate. The palette is both varied and vibrant, and the artist has posed his creatures in a range of inventive yet possible positions. The text, however, is not as impressive. The use of colloquialisms in the dialogue-"golly," "holy cow," etc.-seems at odds with the more formal language of the narratives. Libraries who have invested in Jerry Pinkney's Aesop's Fables (SeaStar, 2000), which features 60 tales and has a better meld of text and illustration, may consider this an additional purchase.Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.