The Horn Book Guide

LITERATURE

Bolt, Ranjit

The Hare and the Tortoise and Other Fables of La Fontaine

64 pp. | Barefoot | September, 2006 | Trade ISBN 1-905236-54-9 $19.99

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Giselle Potter. Bolt translates nineteen fables in rhymed couplets. The verse takes center stage on Potter's full-bleed pages, where characters make a quiet, invitingly decorative complement. An introduction outlines the venerable history of La Fontaine's sources; an "Afterword" poem offers a sort of supermoral. In a field long dominated by Aesop, this is an attractive, more courtly offering.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2007