I first read Aesop's Fables by myself as a small child and the stories really stuck with me. Everyone should know these stories, and this is such a great introduction. Everything feels more modern told through verse, and this format will make it easy for children and grownups to share the experience. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this.

Aesop the Storyteller is a new take on old tales. The fables of Aesop are presented here in verse. Perfect for sharing aloud, readers will find some lesser known gems as well as familiar favorites within this collection.

This is, by far, my favorite version of the fables of Aesop. Not only are they presented in a unique format, poetry, but their is also added material in some of them that makes the old stories seem fresh and new. I love that Leon Conrad chooses different rhythms and rhyme schemes throughout so that each story has its own flare while still keeping the cohesion of the collection. These verses are perfect as read alouds. I can see them being used as bedtime stories or dinner-time discussions for parents and children to share together. I love that the stories are sprinkled with some advanced vocabulary which adds another element to their sharability between grown-ups and children. Finally, it should be noted that none of these fables includes the moral. This isn't because the author doesn't understand that morals are a fable staple but rather because he trusts his readers to be able to discern the morals for themselves. It's so refreshing to encounter this in what is essentially a children's book. We don't always give enough credit to young people when it comes to taking lessons from literature, and we don't always allow for natural discussions to flow between parents and children about what this read. This book does both in a truly wonderful way.

Bottom line: I think everyone should read Aesop the Storyteller, but if you are the parent of young children, whether they have been introduced to Aesop before or not, please pick up this book and set aside some time to enjoy it together.

I haven't read Aesop's fables since I was a child and enjoyed getting reacquainted. I appreciated the author's taking the stories back to the basics, as they were not meant to moralize you. You needed to figure that out for yourself. I enjoyed the prose. It was witty and clever. The modern references just made it more relatable. All in all, it was a quick and enjoyable read. Thank you, NetGalley and Aladdin's Cave Publishing, for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and Aladdin's Cave Publishing for the chance to read and review this book.

I don't know if it's nostalgia or what, but this was a fun read. It's been a while since I've read the fables and it was nice to not have the message to explicitly given out in them (still pretty explicit though but that's just the nature of them.).

All in all, 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 where the former is not available.

I very much appreciate the attempt to take Aesop's tales back to their origins. The author notes that Aesop wanted people to think for themselves - true - and the various versions of these stories often took that "thinking" part away by adding all sorts of personal moral baggage. I found the attempt at poetry to be less successful - in places sentences are just hacked into different shapes, with rhythm and meter somewhat jerky or missing. Fundamentally, though, this is a good attempt at teaching original literature, and belongs in any classroom or supplemental education program.