Jack Kent's Fables of Aesop

Jack Kent's Fables of Aesop 

Aesop's original Greek fables translated and creatively illustrated by Jack Kent
Grade Level: 3-8
Genre: Traditional Literature
Awards: none

Summary: Jack Kent uses his illustrations to tell Aesop's blunt and somewhat humorous fables.  Some of the fables included are the following: The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs, The Fox and the Crow, and The Fox and the Grapes.  The ending of The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs teaches that one should be content with enough.  The Fox and the Crow teaches that one should not be fooled by flattery.  Lastly, The Fox and the Grapes teaches that there is some comfort in pretending that we do not want what we can not get.

Evaluation:  I thoroughly enjoyed this read.  I would personally use this book in my future classroom because I think my future students would not only love the tales, but the way Jack Kent illustrates each tale.  As their teacher, I could use the tale to teach them important life lessons in a humorous way.

I chose the grade appropriateness from third to eighth grade because I believe they would 1) learn valuable lessons from the tales at that age and 2) have humorous illustrations to go along with the lessons.

The words of wisdom taught at the end of each tale made me think of Mr. Brown's precepts in Wonder.  In my future classroom, I could not only use these tales to teach a lesson, but I could use these tales as a writing prompt (similar to Mr. Brown).  The students could be read one tale at the beginning of the week.  They would then have the remaining week to write a response to the lesson taught.  They could connect the lesson to a similar lesson a main character in their independent reading learned, or one they learned themselves.  This would be a fun way to encourage creative and reflective writing.