In this freshened-up reissue of Twelve Tales from Aesop (1980), the art goes to full-page and is reprinted in bright, glowing colors, while the familiar fables have been rearranged and given explicit morals. One story has been dropped (possibly due to disputed origins), and the rest lightly edited; the mouse in “The Lion and the Mouse,” for instance, is now female. Each tale appears on the left-hand page with its corresponding illustration on the facing page, making for a sometimes text-heavy experience. Eric Carle’s Treasury of Classic Stories for Children (1988) also includes versions of all of these—but where the earlier renditions aren’t available, this makes an appealing choice for sharing with younger children or with readers who might prefer a “Grasshopper and the Ants” in which the grasshopper survives. (Picture book/folklore. 5-8)
