The Rabbit and the Turtle 

 Retold and illustrated by Eric Carle. The original is from a collection of fables from Aesop's Fables.

Medium: Unknown- appears to be painting, cutout, and collages.
Genre: Picture Book – Folklore
Theme: Fables/Moral lessons
Other Relevant Information: These fables are from Aesop's Fables which is a famous book filled with many short fables teaching values and morals of life. Aesop used animals as characters in his fables, and so Eric Carle follows suit, adding in his own flavor (in illustration) to the book.

Summary: Each page has a very short fable, each depicting or teaching a moral value that we learn at the end of the story. For example the fable with the mice and the bell, the mice gather to discuss about how it would be a good idea to place the bell on the cat. It was so that they could hear the cat coming and scatter about before the cat could catch them. However, none of them were willing to be the one to put the bell on the cat, therefore the moral lesson was that you can "talk big" but you must be able to back your "talk" otherwise it's just fluff.

Literary Elements:
In a collection of fables, Eric Carle has selected some of the popular and well known Aesop fables to illustrate. An important aspect of fables is how they are usually moral or value driven, designed to emphasize these as the core message. Morals and values are considered timeless, wisdom that continues across time, it is human nature itself. Fables are also commonly depicted in metaphors and symbolic ways, and this is true of this book. Anamorphic characters are also another feature observed in this book. Aesop used animals as characters in his fables, giving them human like qualities.

Evaluation:
Eric Carle does a great job using his own artistic talents and style to give a modern twist on Aesop's fables. Aesop's fables are one of the oldest stories around, and Eric Carle has made it a bit more modern with his illustrations. I personally like how each story is presented individually on its own page, however on the bottom, the moral or value is written plainly. Personally I'd rather that it wasn't there because it would allow the reader to guess or even practice critically analyzing the text and get the answers on his or her own. It is excellent practice for students to learn how to deprive meaning from text, how to understand metaphors, and also learn some moral or value lessons at the same time.

Social Justice or Issue:
As I mentioned earlier, each fable is focused on addressing moral or values. There are several social justice examples in some of these fables. This book is pretty straightforward and pretty much, a book of advice on specific situations in life.

Follow-Up Activity:
I'd like to use the fables as practice for students to learn how to analyze text, deprive meaning from metaphoric text, because this is one of the more difficult areas to learn for young students. Using fun fables like this, which involve imagination and some "magic", students can find this pretty fun to learn from.