Aesop’s Fables
Retold by Elli Woollard, illustrated by Marta Altés
Macmillan Children’s Books

To attempt a rhyming rendition of one of Aesop’s fables is rather a risky business; to do it well and then go on to write a further seven in unfaltering rhyme that just glides off the tongue is incredible; but that is just what Elli Woollard has done. How she’s pulled off this feat I can’t imagine but only surmise it was with a combination of wit, wisdom and trickery – the characteristics exhibited by the animals she writes about.

Whether you choose to share one of the better known tales such as The Hare and the Tortoise, The Boy Who Cried Wolf; or The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse;

or want to discover what the bear whispered in the small traveller’s ear in the first story; or perhaps learn how the peacock was taken down a peg or two,

each telling is a treat for both reader aloud and listeners

Marta Altés illustrations too are absolutely superb. Every single one, be it a small vignette, a double spread or the single page pattern design sandwiching alternate stories,

is a seductive combination of a rich colour palette and inbuilt humour that fits the vivacious, up-to-the minute tellings of the stories perfectly.