The Lion Classic Aesop’s Fables

Margaret McAllister, ill. Amanda Hall, Lion, 128pp, 978 0 7459 6200 9, £12.99 hbk

Collections of fables or picture book versions of a single fable have long been considered staple fare for child readers. Whether ‘Aesop’ really existed or not, there is (according to the historian of children’s literature, Brian Alderson) written evidence of the fables attributed to Aesop that goes back ‘almost twenty-five centuries’. The message of these cautionary tales endures: would that Bush and Blair had had a copy of ‘The Lion, the Fox and the Beasts’ to hand before deciding to invade Iraq. (That fable’s moral? ‘It’s easier to get into danger than to get out.’)

In this attractive volume of 28 fables (from old favourites to less well known tales), reteller Margaret McAllister adopts a chatty, button-holing style, sometimes with contemporary references. Thus, Hare in ‘The Hare and the Tortoise’ dallies in the forest doing stretching exercises, running on the spot and gentle jogging before discovering that the steady tortoise has won the race. The Town Mouse tempts his country cousin to come and stay by offering croissants while of ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’ McAllister warns, ‘This isn’t a happy story. Are you ready?’

Amanda Hall’s beautifully textured use of crayon is particularly successful in her depiction of animals where the light and shade suggests the weight or suppleness of their bodies. Her artworks are framed tableaux in which elements break free to dramatic effect – the wolf in ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’ advances menacingly towards the reader; the traveller in ‘The North Wind and the Sun’ is almost buffeted out of the frame by the North Wind’s fierce gusts.

This is an accessibly told and handsomely published volume (head and tail bands and good quality stock) that would make an excellent present.