Little Book of Fables for Children & Adults

Abstract

Thirty-three fables, following upon a statement that I would dispute: The fable is one of the easiest kinds of stories to write (v). Each story has one, two, or three simple black-and-white illustrations each of which consumes most of a page. Abangan inserts an unusual structural element between each story and its moral lesson, namely Context of the Story. For CP, this context is Cleverness of finding a way to survive (6). Several stories are new to me. The Two Crows (3) is about a contest between crows carrying sacks. They fill their respective sacks with cotton and salt. When the rain comes, the wiser crow is apparent. A fox captures a turtle but cannot break his shell in order to eat him. The clever turtle suggests that the fox put him in water to soften him up. Once the turtle hits the water, he is gone (41)! A dog substitutes for the fox here in the story about the goat and the well (53); the same is true for FC (63). OR becomes the story of the mango and the bamboo trees (75). Abangan's ant is more discrete than La Fontaine's in GA. It gives the grasshopper food today but says he will need to find his own tomorrow (19). At the end there is a Free Page--For Some Reminders (97).