John Biscello

John Biscello’s “Once Upon a Time: Classic Fables Reimagined” is exactly as you might expect. He has rewritten 15 classic tales for modern audiences. Each fable is succinctly told, following the brevity of Aesop himself, and each one is paired with an enhanced version of the original illustrations from the 1921 edition of Argosy of Fables. A number of the stories were new to me: Biscello has selected tales from the Argosy partly for their strength of illustration but also to ensure a breadth of traditional tales from around the globe.

The illustrations are vibrant; the tales varied. For me, they varied in the retelling as well as in spread and tradition but here I must acknowledge that I’m probably a traditionalist; I’m happy with the classic telling. That said, I enjoyed reading through these short stories, which are at times humorous and at other times quite graphic. I appreciated the information on the origin of each tale and also the list provided of possible ‘morals’ that might be gleaned from the tales. A perfect springboard for lots of discussion between adult and child. These are stories that encourage dialogue beyond a simple reading of the written word.

I received a free copy of this book through Librarything's Members Giveaway.… (meer)