The Aesop for Children
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- See also: Aesop's Fables
The Aesop for Children is an illustrated adaptation of Aesop's Fables as published by Barnes & Noble Books (Checkerboard Press, Inc.: 1919, 1947, later published in 1993 by Barnes & Nobles Books, ISBN 1-56619-292-7)
This book has large print and is excellent for teaching phonics to a beginning reader. It has terrific colorful illustrations by a skilled artist.
There are about a dozen typos that can a motivator for the reader to find.
Vocabulary
- filbert (pronounced phonetically as FIL-ˈbərt), meaning a hazelnut, thick-shelled and sweet, or the tree that grows such nuts
- miry (pronounced MEYE-ree, meaning muddy or swampy as in a mire)
- caper (pronounced phonetically with a long "a"), meaning a dance or little skip that is playful
- warren (pronounced phonetically), meaning a system of underground tunnels, as in burrows dug by rabbits
- Satyr (pronounced SAH-dər), a devilish mythological he-goat, biblical references at Leviticus 17:7, 2 Chronicles 11:15, Isaiah 13:21, and Isaiah 34:14.
- spar (pronounced phonetically, spär), a thick and study pole as might be used as a ship's mast to hoist sails
Greek mythology
There are a few references to Greek mythology, such as one fable where there is a prayer to Jupiter and another where Hercules appears.
Minor Criticisms
As with most books, criticisms can be mentioned. Minor flaws about this book include:
- archaic terminology for donkeys and roosters, which unfortunately are used often throughout the book;
- overuse of the verb "get" when a more descriptive verb, depending on the context, would be more educational;
- overuse of the term "comrade", which in addition to its negative political connotation it is also non-phonetic;
- some of its stated morals to the story miss the mark, as in the famous tale of the Tortoise and the Hare, where the lesson should be "slow and steady wins the race";
- there are occasional spacing errors in the words, such as an extra space within a word or two words lacking a space in between;
- the writing may originally be British (and thus slanted towards atheism or other biases), as in two different stories it uses the British expression "in the wood" rather than "in the forest" or "in the woods," and once the British spelling "unsavoury" (rather than the American spelling "savory") appears; and
- there are a few (about 3 or so) grammar errors in the book, similar to "who he knows" rather than "whom he knows."