Plot: A cat has great visions of a fish feast while fishing, but they gradually wane as time goes by without a nibble.

Moral: When the need is strong, there are those who will believe anything.

Plot: A bear is determined to impress the townspeople with his fancy dress, but falls for some bad fashion tips from a troublemaking crow and ends up humiliated.

Moral: The highest hopes may lead to the greatest disappointments.

Plot: Three frogs travel to the end of the rainbow to secure its treasure, but find another surprise instead.

Moral: Advice from friends is like the weather: some of it is good Some of it is bad.

Plot: A baboon with an umbrella is advised by a friend to cut holes in it, so he can enjoy the beautiful weather, but things end up going terribly wrong after that.

Moral: It is always difficult to pose as something that one is not.

The 'tree' invites her out to enjoy its company, but several clues suggest there's an ulterior motive.

Plot: A hen finds a talking apple tree outside her house.

Moral: Even the taking of small risks will add excitement to life.

Plot: An adventurous lobster takes a timid crab on a boat ride through an ocean storm, and both end up enjoying themselves.

Moral: It is the high and the mighty who have the longest distance to fall.

However the King receives a humiliating blow, upon inspecting the beetle's bow.

Plot: An arrogant lion king demands that everybody, including a tiny beetle, bow to him.

Moral: At times, a change of routine can be most helpful.

But when the fox shows his true colors, they decide to search for a new safer path.

Plot: Two ducks meet a seemingly friendly fox, while taking their regular path to their pond.

Moral: Without a doubt, there is such a thing as too much order.

Plot: A crocodile enjoys the orderly flowered wallpaper in his bedroom, over his wife's messy garden, but becomes sickly upon never leaving.

The moral is, 'Without a doubt, there is such a thing as too much order.' After that he seldom leaves his bed, becoming a sickly shade of green. Crocodile's garden he retreats to his bed in distress, where he is comforted by the neat floral rows of the wallpaper. When confronted with the riot of flowers in Mrs. For instance, in the first fable a bed-loving crocodile admires the orderly pattern of flowers on his bedroom wallpaper. He gives a moral to each, but while the moral is genuine, the tone of the fables is cheerful and playful rather than moralistic. įor each of the twenty fables Lobel's text occupies one page, with his colour illustration on the facing page.

Released by Harper & Row in 1980, it was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1981. Fables is a children's picture book by American author Arnold Lobel.

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