Two Voices Are Better Than One: You Read to Me and I'll Read to You: Very Short Fables to Read Together by Mary Ann Hoberman

HERE'S A BOOK
...AESOP'S FABLES.
TALES WHERE TURTLES
TURN THE TABLES.

IN THIS BOOK WE HAVE TWO CHOICES.
IN THIS BOOK WE HAVE TWO VOICES.

YOU TAKE ONE VOICE;
I'LL TAKE THE OTHER.
THEN WE READ TO ONE ANOTHER.

TILL WE REACH THE FABLE'S MORAL,
THEN WE MAKE THE VOICES CHORAL.

Mary Ann Hoberman's latest in her notable You Read to Me and I'll Read to You series, titled You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Fables to Read Together (Little, Brown, 2010) follows the familiar format in presenting some of the better known fables--"The Hare and the Tortoise," "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse,"--and some less well-known tales--"The Ant and the Dove," "The North Wind and the Sun," and "The Dog in the Manger"--with the dual voiced parts separated by a vertical line and printed in a different-colored font until the statement of the moral, which is done up in a third color for joint voices.

Hoberman's rhymes are simple and easily understood as they re-tell most of Aesop's famous fables in a way accessible to any age, and Michael Emberley's gentle and humorous watercolored illustrations help to bring home the ancient wisdom of these oldest tales in human literature with morals as applicable today as they were three millennia ago.

This book belongs in elementary library and classroom collections, of course, and is also of special worth to teachers of those upcoming summer activities for children--sleepaway- and day-camps, vacation church schools, and summer school programs. Good for oral reading practice, good for literary awareness, good material for group theatrical performances, and plain good advice for living, this latest in this popular series joins You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Fairy Tales to Read Together, You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Mother Goose Tales to Read Together, and You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Scary Tales to Read Together as fun and educational read-aloud activities for children.