El Libro de Oro de los Niños II

Abstract

The six volumes in this series have each the same structure consisting of sixteen parts. Part VI is Los Animales Hablan: La Fabula. Here in Volume II this part begins on 63 and runs through 80. The T of C at the beginning notes the authors of the individual fables, here Aesop, Phaedrus, or La Fontaine. The special gift of this series, I think, lies in the brightly colored illustrations that interact with the text. Do the attacking cats roll off the ball of Holland cheese in which the recluse rat had holed himself up (66-67)? On 68-69, Mateldi combines the four colors to create two nicely contrasting views of the two meals of FS. There are lovely visual contrasts between the ant and the fly on 74-75. I like Mateldi's sweeping illustrations for FK on 78-80. These excellent art-pieces are almost all signed Mateldi, one of the many artists listed on the page after the title-page.