The Fox and the Crow by Manasi Subramaniam (review)

Crow spies a loaf of bread. After swiping it off the windowsill, he sneaks off to the woods to enjoy his contraband. There Fox spies him, and she tricks him into dropping the bread, then absconds with it into the night, leaving Crow with hunger unsatisfied. This streamlined retelling of Aesop’s fable “The Fox and the Crow” mixes spare prose with earthy, enveloping illustrations. Moody acrylics in full-bleed, double-page spreads exude a sense of menace, especially in the hungry, expressive features of the title characters. The adapter gives the tale some lyrical turns, but the sparseness of language and lack of connection leave the retelling disjointed, failing to gather momentum toward a more coherent overarching narrative. This sophisticated but knotty story is therefore probably best suited for reading alone and enhancement with some adult context, but the chilly atmosphere, moral ambiguity, and bleak honesty may give readers a taste of what makes such fables timeless.