Fables into Picture Books

With their minimal plots, fables seem a natural choice for picture books. The author and illustrator can embellish the tale and give it a personal touch. In picture books, the main characters in fables lose their anonymity and become more individual. These books stress the entertaining qualities of the tales, though without sacrificing the lessons, which are sometimes even strengthened by the text or the illustrations.

Most of the fables presented singly in picture books are those of Aesop or La Fontaine. Eighteen of the twenty-six picture books I investigated are based on tales from Aesop or on La Fontaine's version of them, two on a story in La Fontaine that does not appear in Aesop, and five on tales from Indian tradition, mostly from the Panchatantra. One picture book—The Hare and the Tortoise and the Tortoise and the Hare, by William Pène du Bois and Lee Po—retells and links together an Aesop fable and a tale similar to one found in the Panchatantra.

Many of these books are retellings of but a handful of fables. "The Miller, His Son, and Their Ass," one of Aesop's fables, is retold in Katherine Evans' The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey, Roger Duvoisin's The Miller, His Son, and Their Donkey, Jean Showalter's The Donkey Ride, Brian Wildsmith's The Miller, the Boy, and the Donkey, and Mary Calhoun's Old Man Whickutt's Donkey. "The Hare and the Tortoise" appears as three works, illustrated by Brian Wildsmith, Paul Galdone, and William Pène du Bois. Aesop's version of "The Lion and the Mouse" has been illustrated by Ed Young and La Fontaine's version, "The Lion and the Rat," by Brian Wildsmith. "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" is retold in the book by the same name illustrated by Paul Galdone, and in a translation of Horace's version, Two Roman Mice, by Marilynne K. Roach. Katherine Evans, in The Maid and Her Pail of Milk, and Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire, in Don't Count Your Chicks, retell Aesop's "The Milk-woman and Her Pail." The tale of "The Wind and the Sun" is retold in both The Wind and the Sun, illustrated by Margaret Horder, and in The North Wind and the Sun, illustrated by Brian Wildsmith. La Fontaine's fable, "The Cobbler and the Financier," has been retold by Brian Wildsmith in The Rich Man and the Shoemaker and by Marcia Sewall in The Cobbler's Song. Two tales from the Panchatantra also appear in more than one version. "The Blue Jackal" has been retold by Marcia Brown and by Mehlli Gobhai. Shortened versions of "The Monkey and the Crocodile" appear as Paul Galdone's book by the same title and, with different characters, as the second story in The Hare and the Tortoise and the Tortoise and the Hare by William Pène du Bois and Lee Po.

A few fables seem to have appeared only once as picture books. Katherine Evans retells Aesop's fable, "The Father and His Sons," in A Bundle of Sticks, his 'The Shepherd's Boy and the Wolf" in The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and the Panchatantra tale "The Mice Who Ate Iron" in her book of the same title. Marcia Brown has retold and illustrated The Mouse and the Hermit," from the Panchatantra, in Once a Mouse . . . ; Barbara Cooney has illustrated Geoffrey Chaucer's retelling of Aesop's "The Cock and the Fox" in Chanticleer and the Fox.

One fable has received attention of a very different kind from creators of picture books. Aesop's "The Grasshopper and the Ant" is the basis of two works which celebrate the grasshopper instead of the ant. In Leo Lionni's Frederick, the mouse who spends his days gathering sun rays, colors, and words instead of food uses these "supplies" to counteract his companions' winter doldrums. In John Ciardi's John J. Plenty and Fiddler Dan, the ant becomes so fearful of wasting food that he eats little of his hoard and grows weak with hunger, while the grasshopper survives the winter...