Truyen Ngu Ngon ve Su Tu/Lion Fables

Abstract

This is a large-format (11" x 9 1/4") landscape book presenting two fables: LM and "The Hare's Revenge." The illustrations seem to use about three or four colors, typically tan, brown, pink, and green. LM uses the green effectively for the lion's eyes. The mouse promises when caught to be the lion's friend forever. "Who knows, one day I might even save your life." The mouse needs apparently almost a full twenty-four hours to gnaw the lion free from his net. "The Hare's Revenge" is labeled as a Malaysian fable, but its main "trick" is well known in "Panchatantra" and KD circles. Here there is no agreement of all the animals to supply the lion with food. Rather, hare has had to listen to the lion's boasting too often and can stand it no longer. So he gets his revenge in the way the KD story follows, that is, by getting the lion jealous of a (fictive) lion who claims to be stronger. The hare then leads the lion to the well where this supposed rival lives. Here, in a fine illustration repeated on the cover, the lion's eyes are not green but reddish. This version does not include the fictive rabbit captured by the fictive lion. The final picture of the lion leaping into the well is particularly good. There are suggestions for teachers for both fables on a page between the two fables. The book is Talking Pen enabled. This book is one of some eighteen bilingual editions combining other languages with English for these fables. Unfortunately, they are a little on the expensive side! I now have simplified Chinese, French, Spanish, Russian, and Vietnamese. Someday I may run into a whole group of them on sale.