I. A. Krylov Basni

Abstract

The first thing to strike one picking up this well-constructed children's book is the glossy appliques on the green cover, with a fox, crow, and cheese highlighted at the center, and four colored circles aligning this picture. Inside are twenty-four fables listed in the T of C at the end. Most fables receive a beginning cameo, a full-page illustration, and an endpiece. Favorite illustrations of mine include the nonchalant wolf caught in the kennel (17); the lecturing cook and smiling cat--whose picture is followed by an endpiece of mice carrying off a sausage (36-7); and the monkey being barbered by the bear (50). As usual in the Russian tradition, the fox looking up at the grapes is female (52).