Abstract Here is the original edition later packaged as "Learn 9 Languages with Aesop's Fables" produced in 2009 by Selectsoft. While the art on the jewel box and disc are different, the contents of the disc are exactly the same. Here is a tip: if the disc is hard to play, open it and double-click "Storyrom." As I wrote about the later version, this clever approach allows for hearing or reading in all nine languages. One can switch language within the cartoon panels for a given story. The first...

Abstract Nine languages! This clever approach allows for hearing or reading in all nine languages. One can switch language within the cartoon panels for a given story. The first two stories are TH and GGE. I found the German and French, as well as the English, to be clearly enunciated and pleasantly idiomatic. I did not find the way to see a menu of stories or to move easily from one story to another. The disc confirms my sense that fables are a good way to get into a new language. I have done...

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This intriguing looking game unfortunately plays only on a MAC. I trust that someone will enjoy it someday!

Abstract A delightful CD-ROM featuring five good stories with about five to ten screens each. After a portion of the story is read--in delightful British overseas accent--for that screen, a viewer can play with its characters: frogs catch flies when clicked on, lizards crawl across rocks, skeletons come out of caves and dance. The last frame of each story is a moral little song. There is often a nice finishing phase to a scene when the viewer clicks to go on to the following episode. The beginning...

Abstract A delightful CD-ROM featuring five good stories with about five to ten screens each. After a portion of the story is read--in delightful British overseas accent--for that screen, a viewer can play with its characters: frogs catch flies when clicked on, lizards crawl across rocks, skeletons come out of caves and dance. The last frame of each story is a moral little song. There is often a nice finishing phase to a scene when the viewer clicks to go on to the following episode. The beginning...

Abstract This is a simple presentation of LM on cartoon slides with the text on the screen highlighted phrase by phrase while it is read. A listener can also click on any word to have it said or on any object to see and hear the word. The reading is enhanced with simple musical background and some sound effects. The speed of the presentation is so slow that it is burdensome to any but those who are learning to read. The text is copyrighted by National Textbook Company, the producers of Leonardo el...

Abstract This is a simple presentation of TMCM on cartoon slides with the text on the screen highlighted phrase by phrase while it is read. A listener can also click on any word to have it said or on any object to see and hear the word. The reading is enhanced with simple musical background and some sound effects. The speed of the presentation is so slow that it is burdensome to any but those who are learning to read. The text is copyrighted by National Textbook Company, the producers of Chiquita y...

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Here are six fables: TH, GGE, FC, BW, TMCM, and MM. A viewer/listener has the choice of nine different languages. The stories may be read by the computer or by the viewer, as 55 slides with text carry her or him through the stories. There are also foreign language drills. The sound work on the English and German reading is poor, especially at the beginning of the disk; it is as though the reader were standing too close to the microphone.

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Here is a serious resource. The good scan of this important volume gives a valuable array of fables from various authors and a fine set of simple illustrations. I am not sure we can get away with selling copies of an old book like this one in this country. It is a good resource to offer someone who wonders what fable books were like in the middle of the nineteenth century. Maneuvering into and around the disk is very easy. Well done!

Abstract Attractive packaging here has led only to a disappointment so far. It seems to be a more-than-audio CD that my computer wants to read only as an audio production! The back of the package promises pictures and a maze very much like what is found on the CD Danny Glover Tells Aesop's Fables listed nearby. I have tried twice with this CD-ROM product and will give up till I found out what's happening. The extra copy has an added problem: the scratched CD skips regularly. Now, in '02, I can report...

Abstract This is a delightful set of four fables and four activities. The fables are GGE, "The Monkey King," "An Ideal Son in Law," and FC. Each is told, on about four to six pages, in a fashion I love. After hearing the page's text, the viewer can click on various parts of the page to get surprises: birds fly out of chimneys, trees start to dance, airplanes fly through the sky, or plants sprout and start singing together! Click on a fifth tab pictured on the opening page's book, and you arrive at...

Abstract Guitar background. Lively sung introductions to Aesop and to his life, followed by five stories 6 to 12 minutes in length. CP, BW, AD, "The Monkey & the Donkey," and DS. At the end there is a reprise of "Aesop, Alive and Well." I listened to "Poor Crow" and "The Shepherd Boy." Ferlatte continues to tell of Aesop's life between fables. Narration moves easily into song. The renditions are engaging. For example, the dying laugh of the shepherd boy at others' expense is very well...

Scope and Contents From the Collection: The Carlson Fable Collection is a gathering of primary fable materials at Reinert Alumni Memorial Library at Creighton University. It grew out of the personal collection of fable materials gathered by Rev. Gregory Carlson, S.J. and was given to the Creighton Libraries in 1996. There are more than 10,000 books and approximately 8,000 artifacts in the collection.From plates to stamps, from cards to whiskey decanters, from toys to posters, you'll find just about anything you can...

Abstract This CD comes from a time when computer afficionados were eager to employ their skills in translating old books into digital form. As they appear on the computer screen, these files were, to me, offputting. Once they are reduced to about 70% of their original size, they take on more of the sharpness of their originals. The Peter Newell illustrations for "Fables for the Frivolous" remain, I believe, overly dark. Griset seems to me always to be overly dark. Why someone would digitize a...

Abstract This CD contains Aesop in four languages. The key to the English edition may be that the publisher is listed as "Cassell, Petter, Galpin, & Co." The company took that specific name in 1878. Note also the comment after the introduction by JBR(undell) that about 130 fables not in the first and second editions have been added by another editor. A guess says that this is the edition in our collection for which I have guessed a date of 1890. The break before the added 132 fables comes at...

Abstract Here is something new. Clérambault in the eighteenth century created children's music out of fables, set to vaudeville tunes and simple arias. The texts by an unknown author are simpler than La Fontaine's. They match well the catchy tunes to which they are put. The result is delightful, not least when OF ends with a vocal sound like a balloon bursting. The disc has twenty such fables and then six instrumental-only tracks for family karaoke. With the disc is a 20-page leaflet including...

Abstract This disc is a very pleasant surprise. The texts of La Fontaine are presented verbatim, if not always at the same level of intensity or audibility. But each text is encased in a true chanson, with its own rhythm and persuasion. These chansons move! I enjoyed the first four immensely, not least the conjunction of the third and fourth: "The Rat and the Elephant" and "The Frog Who Wanted to Be as Big as An Ox." They are very much about the same pretentiousness. The voices here work...

Abstract This disc has two fables, besides its songs and stories, with a steady background of classical music. GA runs 3:11, features a narrator with a non-native English accent, a woman's voice for the ant, and the moral "We should always make plans for the future." TMCM runs 3:21. The two mice are so eager to be off to the city that they do not even finish the country meal. The country mouse runs--from the cook--head-first into the floorboard before she gets into the hole through it. Then the...

Abstract This disc has two fables, besides its songs and stories, with a steady background of classical music. They are Tracks 23 and 24. Both feature a narrator with a non-native English accent. "The Farmer And His Sons" (and the bundle of sticks) runs 1:47 and climaxes in the lesson "Working together to get something usually works out best." FG runs 2:27 and emphasizes almost everything in the story. Thus this is a sly old fox, he is very hungry, and he jumps many times. "Sometimes when we cannot...

Abstract This disc has two fables, besides its songs and stories, with a steady background of classical music. They are Tracks 21 and 22. The first features a male narrator with a non-native English accent. "The Goat And The Fox" runs 2:04 and starts in medias res. When the goat appears, the fox seizes his opportunity. The fox lets the goat first drink and then ask the question about getting out. The fox laughs as he goes on his way. "You should always look carefully before you do something." TH runs...

Abstract This disc has three fables, besides its songs and stories, with a steady background of classical music. They are Tracks 23, 24, and 25. The first two feature a male narrator with a non-native English accent. "Jupiter And The Monkey" (and the baby contest) runs 2:02. Jupiter starts to giggle when he sees the monkey baby. "I don't care what Jupiter or anyone else thinks. To me you are the most beautiful baby in the world" "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." "The King Of The Forest" runs...

Abstract This disc has two fables, besides its songs and stories, with a steady background of classical music. They are Tracks 22 and 23. The first features a male narrator with a non-native English accent. MSA (2:37) has the male narrator imitating various voices along the way. In this version the bridge breaks and the two humans get wet, though the donkey seems to have got away before the bridge broke. I find that version difficult. "You cannot please everyone all the time. Do you best every day...

Abstract This disc has two fables, besides its songs and stories, with a steady background of classical music. They are Tracks 20 and 21. Both are narrated by a male narrator with a non-native English accent. "The Peacock And The Crane" (2:43) elaborates the tale that has the peacock mocking the crane's drab color; the peacock has to concede that the crane can fly and sing and that the peacock's purpose is to look beautiful. "Do not judge someone by the way he or she looks. It is what is inside that...

Abstract This disc has two fables, besides its songs and stories, with a steady background of classical music. They are Tracks 19 and 20. Both are narrated by a male narrator with a non-native English accent. SW (4:04) has an elaborate argument lasting for weeks and causing both the north wind and the sun to neglect their normal duties. The bet is well expressed; it is about "whichever of us can get the coat off of that farmer." The effects of both north wind and sun are described in cosmic terms....

Abstract This disc has three fables, besides its songs and stories, with a steady background of classical music. They are Tracks 15, 16, and 17. They are narrated by a male narrator with a non-native English accent. "The White Cat And The Imps" (2:37), not really a fable, involves a traveller who has captured a bear and asks to stay in a solitary woodsman's cabin. The latter quickly agrees but mentions that tonight is the night for the trolls' annual banquet in his cabin. During the riotous...