Twelve Tales from Aesop: Retold and Illustrated

by Eric Carle (Adapter), Aesop

Retells 12 familiar Aesop's fables including "The Rabbit and the Turtle," "The Lion and the Mouse," and "The Wolf and the Lamb."

Genres: Picture Books

29 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Eric Carle was an American author, designer and illustrator of children's books. His picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, first published in 1969, has been translated into more than 66 languages and sold more than 50 million copies. Carle's career as an illustrator and children's book author accelerated after he collaborated on Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?. Carle illustrated more than 70 books, most of which he also wrote, and more than 145 million copies of his books have been sold around the world.
In 2003, the American Library Association awarded Carle the biennial Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal (now called the Children's Literature Legacy Award), a prize for writers or illustrators of children's books published in the U.S. who have made lasting contributions to the field. Carle was also a U.S. nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2010.

Reviews

[Cheryl]

The best thing about it is that some of the tales were unfamiliar to me. I love Carle's work, of course, but this just felt dissonant to me... his style isn't what I think of when I think Aesop. The retellings were fine, objectively, but somehow seemed a little too simplified to suit me. And besides, there are so many other good editions of Aesop, choose one of them instead.

[Taco]

It’s exactly what you’d expect.

[Tami]

While the twelve include many well known stories there are also some less popularized such as "The Grasshopper and the Ants" which questions the value of art and "The Wolf and the Dog" which explores the value of freedom.