《学校图书馆杂志》(School Library Journal)书评

K-Gr 5‘Storyteller Elizabeth Gibson adapts and tells eight fables in this collection. True to fable form, the stories contain a mix of human and personified animal characters who embody humankind's admirable qualities and foibles. Courage, foolishness, honesty and vanity are all worked through plots freely embellished by Gibson, who gives each tale a decidedly contemporary spin. The didactic nature of the fable remains intact as explicit morals emerge from each story. Gibson's clear voice is easy to understand and pleasant. Her pacing is expressive and varied. She uses music in several of the stories, and her singing is a pleasant touch. Brief guitar interludes separate the stories; the sound quality overall is excellent. The only real problems in these retellings of Aesop's fables occur when the storyteller's art goes out of control. Voice variations which could lend spice and clarity to the tellings are so exaggerated that words become obscured. In "Max and His Trusty Ax," the voices of two of the three characters are virtually identical, making it unnecessarily difficult to keep the speakers straight. Other voices effectively evoke character as in "Penelope and Henrietta," a story of a greedy girl and her equally greedy pet chicken. However, the voice of "The Courageous Lion" sparks memories of his cowardly movie counterpart from "The Wizard of Oz." The resulting stories are entertaining, but occasionally the over-decoration makes the plots seem almost secondary. Nevertheless, teachers and librarians will find this an entertaining addition to school and public libraries.-Nancy L. Chu, Western Illinois University, Macomb (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.