National Centre for the Study of Children's Literature

San Diego University, January 2006

It is good to see creative, new editions of Aesop's fables like this well told and well illustrated collection of eight stories based on Aesop's fables. These aren't the fables themselves. Those are no longer than 5-6 paragraphs. A good collection of those incomparable gems of wisdom is a gift to any child. Pirotta does something different, though; he spins the fables into stories several pages long and very colorfully told. Pirotta uses the voice of Aesop himself to directly address the reader, e.g. "Welcome back, my friends." It's as if Aesop were speaking face-to-face with the listener. This technique draws the audience into the tale. In addition to telling the fables, Aesop also tells the reader about himself, giving your child some background history and a lesson or two about slavery (Aesop was a slave in his early life).

Alida Allison