Five fables and one other"": a delightful extension of the concept of a fable. Eight animals gather for an afternoon that stays pleasant only until they begin to tell each other tales: the turtle tells how a turtle won a race with a hare, making the hare angry; the raven is offended when the fox tells how the raven was tricked in ""The Fox and the Raven""; and so on until four of the animals, obsessed with getting even, attack their erstwhile friends. Then (making the framing stow the best fable of all) a lion arrives to tell how a lion was once saved by a mouse--and the peaceable kingdom is restored. Simply and gracefully told; elegant illustrations, with the finely detailed, expressive creatures appearing in a surreal meadow, a distant volcano suggesting a power to dwarf their petty squabbles.