Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons-the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example.

This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country. (And the consequence of messy pelican's bad ones is merely that he isn't invited back.) All of which serves to confirm Lobel's moral for his story of 'The Frogs at the Rainbow's End': 'The highest hopes may lead to the greatest disappointments. Moral: 'At times, a change of routine can be most healthful.' In another fable, Lobel evokes Aesop with a crane inviting a pelican to tea, only to set forth a cautionary lesson in table manners. We're set up for a confrontation between the stodgy and the venturesome, right? But then instead of confirming, modifying, or exposing the expected conclusion, Lobel fudges the issue: a fox, who knows their habits, is waiting to bag them on their regular route. It starts out with two duck sisters arguing about whether they will go to the pond by their usual route or try something new. Meanwhile, in the second entry, Lobel has added a twist of sorts, possibly for a joke but it's counterproductive.

'If you look at me closely you will see that I am making a bow,' says the Beetle, whereupon King Lion bends over and, top-heavy with jeweled crown and medals, loses his balance. And so? He simply stays in bed and turns 'a very pale and sickly shade of green.' Even the moral is redundant: 'Without a doubt there is such a thing as too much order.' The third fable is another platitude in story form: a little Beetle topples an imperious Lion King who demands respect. Lobel begins with the static portrait of a foolish crocodile, who prefers the patterned flowers on his bedroom wallpaper to the tangled profusion of his wife's real garden. The illustrations could be animal companions to the human figures for Gregory Griggs (1978), Lobel's nursery rhyme collection but these suffer for having less to illustrate. But there's not a jot of wit, wisdom, style, or originality in these 20 flat and predictable items. One might expect that the creator of Frog and Toad could, if he chose, give us fables with some subtlety and psychological depth.

Fables lobel book