Fables (Lobel book)

Fables
First edition.
AuthorArnold Lobel
IllustratorArnold Lobel
Cover artistLobel
GenreChildren's picture book
PublisherHarper & Row
Publication date
August 6, 1980
Publication placeUnited States
ISBN978-0-06-023973-2
OCLC5829958
LC ClassPZ8.2.L6 Fab

Fables is a children's picture book written and illustrated by American author Arnold Lobel. Released by Harper & Row in 1980, it was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1981.[1]

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

  1. ^ American Library Association: Caldecott Medal Winners, 1938 - Present. URL accessed 27 May 2009.