Here are five of the best-loved fables of La Fontaine simply retold and sumptuously illustrated by Brian Wildsmith, an internationally acclaimed picture-book writer and artist. We meet a boastful hare as he challenges a slow-and-steady tortoise to a race. We see how a bag of coins threatens to rob a simple shoemaker of his happiness. We discover that the Sun's gentle warmth is more than a match for the North Wind's bluster. We join a miller, a boy, and a donkey on their eventful journey. And we witness a little rat's kindness and courage in helping a mighty lion. These are lovely stories for adults to share with children over and over again.

 

There are 160 pages in this book. This book was published 2008 by Oxford University Press .

Brian Lawrence Wildsmith was a British painter and children's book illustrator. He won the 1962 Kate Greenaway Medal for British children's book illustration, for the wordless alphabet book ABC. In all his books, the illustrations are always as important as the text. Wildsmith is considered as one of the greatest children's illustrators. The British Library Association recognised his first book, the wordless alphabet book ABC (1962), with the Kate Greenaway Medal for the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject. Four of his works were subsequently commended runners-up for the Medal, all published by Oxford University Press: Oxford Book of Poetry for Children, edited by Edward Blishen, 1963; The Lion and the Rat: A Fable, by Jean de La Fontaine (1668), adapted from Aesop, also 1963; Birds, 1967; and The Owl and the Woodpecker, 1971. The biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award conferred by the International Board on Books for Young People is the highest recognition available to a writer or illustrator of children's books. Wildsmith was one of two runners-up for the inaugural illustration award in 1966 and one of three runners-up in 1968. Find out more here https://www. brianwildsmith. com/.