Creighton University

This is the third acquisition among the series of six, and it convinced me to go after the other three, which will arrive soon.  The pamphlet offers delightful cartoons, starting with the front-cover's strongly contrasting facial expressions of the grasshopper and ant.  First the fable is told in its entirety, with helpful vocabulary at the page bottom.  Then we start putting the story into a context for today by taking a few lines at a time and giving these lines a two-page spread.  La Fontaine's focus comes out immediately as we read of Magali "Tout l'été, elle a chanté sur la plage pour le plus grand plaisir de ses amis."  The beach scene offers quite a concoction of sunbathing insects!  Magali's promise to pay Sigismonde with interest is based on her visualized hope of soon becoming famous through her singing.  The observation that ants are not lenders is vividly demonstrated by their hard-hatted defense of their treasures (16-17).  Magali spent the summer's days writing songs and the summer's evenings presenting those songs.  "I worked for my public!"  The last pages have plenty of good information about both insects and also good questions to ponder.

This is one of six books in a series.  I am sorry to have missed the series.  Now only two of them seem available at reasonable prices, and here is the second of those two.  The pamphlet offers delightful cartoons, starting with the front-cover picture of the crow sitting on a construction beam with a hard hat and grasping his piece of cheese.  Here that piece of cheese is a good contemporary sandwich.  As this presentation develops, we find Romeo the crow suspended from the Eiffel Tower and Arsène the fox climbing its girders.  Soon it seems that this venue is undergoing a movie shoot.  The fox gets into the workers' suspended box with the crow and continues his pitch.  Soon the crow sings.  He lets go of the sandwich, and the whole crew is after it!  The fox gets it and quickly lowers the box.  As always, the crow is left alone and deprived in the end.  Good fun!

This is one of six books in a series.  This is the sixth and last, and so we have, at least for now, completed the set.  The pamphlet offers delightful cartoons, starting with the front-cover picture of both a casual hare in a sporty shirt and baseball cap, with two balls in his hands and also a tortoise in a straw hat struggling to carry a box of groceries.  First the fable is told in its entirety, with helpful vocabulary at the page bottom.  Then we start putting the story into a context for today by taking a few lines at a time and giving these lines a two-page spread.  The context is departure for vacation, with Diego the hare loading a sports car and Suzette the tortoise, his cousin, waving from her mobile home, which is propelled by a motorbike.  Now that is a clever present-day adaptation of a tortoise's shell occasioned by La Fontaine's finish for the fable!  They discover that they are going to the same place and they agree on a wager and route to get there.  While Suzette sets out immediately, Diego spends time regaling his pals at a bar.  Diego even offers a dinner and takes a siesta.  Diego then borrows a child's tricycle to mock his competitor in front of people at the bar.  He even stops to watch – or perhaps to play? – a game of bocce ball.  His frantic last-minute effort has him being greeted at their destination by Suzette ready to raise a glass to him.  As in the other booklets of this series, the story is followed by reflections and factual observations on the two animals.

This is the fourth acquisition among the series of six.  The pamphlet offers delightful cartoons, starting with the front-cover's contrast of the frog standing on a box on top of a stool to try to measure up with the athletic bull flexing his muscles.  First the fable is told in its entirety, with helpful vocabulary at the page bottom.  Then we start putting the story into a context for today by taking a few lines at a time, creating a contemporary narrative, and giving these lines a two-page picture.  Two little frogs are visiting a county fair, and one, Rosine, is attracted to Archibald, an athletic bull.  She tries to ring the bell with a big hammer and gets only a quarter of the way there.  The next day she starts working out at the gym and asks her sister Solange if she is approaching Archibald's muscularity.  She also swims.  Wherever she goes, she puts up posters of Archibald.  When that approach does not work, she begins to eat everything in sight and keeps asking Solange if she notices a change in her physique.  At this point she is developing a beerbelly.  After a while she starts to approximate Jabba the Hut: a huge blob of flesh.  The final explosion here is dramatically depicted.  "Nothing of Rosine remained."  La Fontaine's general comment on people wanting to expand themselves is well represented by a snail carrying an enormous house.  In the last picture, Rosine is an angel sitting on a lion's shoulder contemplating a rooster carried in a sedilia by servant chickens.  Now, too late, she understands that the task is to be ourselves.  The last pages have plenty of good information about both insects and also good questions to ponder.  This copy has a moderate crease down the center from top to bottom.  I learned here that bulls drink 80 liters of water a day!

This is the fifth acquisition among the series of six.  The pamphlet offers delightful cartoons, starting with the front-cover's contrast of the large lion in business suit and overcoat with the mouse in turtleneck and simple pants.  First the fable is told in its entirety, with helpful vocabulary at the page bottom.  Then we start putting the story into a context for today by taking a few lines at a time, creating a contemporary narrative, and giving these lines a two-page picture.  Rodolphe, the "riche homme d'affaires," is being chauffeured through the city in his grand limousine as Miguel, the vagabond, tries to cross the road with his shopping cart and fast-food bag.  Which of the two has more need of the other?  The limo hits Miguel.  Rodolphe takes Miguel into his limo, gives him a hot drink, and offers him a job.  Miguel goes to work in Rodolphe's car wash.  One afternoon, Rodolphe is on his way to the bank with the day's proceeds when he is robbed by a gang of elephants.  Miguel responds to Rodolphe's cries for help.  His shadow is so frightening that the robbers flee.  Miguel now shares Rodolphe's desk, apparently as a partner in the firm.  The last pages have plenty of good information about both animals and also good questions to ponder.  I learned here that gerbils can be gluttonous.