Selected Bibliography of Aesop's Fables

A fable is a simple tale intended to convey a certain moral or truth. Although fables are popular in many cultures around the world, the most enduring fables have undoubtedly been those of Aesop. Aesop is believed to have been a Greek slave who lived in the first part of the 6th century B.C. His talent for entertaining people with fables eventually won him his freedom and made him an advisor to kings. *

This bibliography highlights the collection of Aesop's Fables in the Social Sciences, Health, and Education Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Many of the older books may be located in SCollection storage, while some are housed in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library in room 346 of the Main Library, and several titles are located in the Center for Children’s Books; please consult the catalog and request assistance from reference staff as needed. The selections listed here represent only a portion of the Aesop's Fables that can be found throughout the campus library system. To search for more Aesop’s fables in the online catalog:

Search for Aesop's or Aesop as a keyword.
Search for the individual title as title/keyword (e.g. hare tortoise).
Browse the author Aesop.
Browse the title of the individual fables (e.g. Hare and the Tortoise).
Browse the subject Aesop’s Fables, or more broadly, browse the subject Fables .

* Aesop. Aesop: Five Centuries of Illustrated Fables. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; distributed by New York Graphic Society, Greenwich, CT, 1964.

Questions? Ask a librarian.

Collections of Aesop's Fables

The collections of Aesop's fables in this list that have been arranged alphabetically by main entry under title or author as they appear in the online catalog. Within this alphabetical arrangement, books without authors have been placed before books with designated authors. Books with identical titles and authors have been arranged chronologically.

S. 398.2 Ae88r
Aesop's Fables: A New Translation. Avenel, 19--. (By V.S. Vernon Jones. Illus. by Arthur Rackham. A fascimile of the 1912 ed.)

S. 398 Ae8s
Aesop. Aesop Fables. Hyperion, 1944. (Text by Elizabeth Stones. Illus. by Emery Kelen.)

X. 881 A3.E1941
Aesop. Aesop's Fables. Heritage Press, 1941. (By Munro Leaf. Illus. by Robert Lawson.)

881 A3.EART1933
Aesop. Aesop's Fables. Viking Press, 1933. (Edited and Illus. by Boris Artzybasheff.)

S. 398.2452 Ae88 1949
Aesop. Aesop's Fables. Lippincott, 1949. (From translations of Thomas James and George Tyler Townsend. Illus. by Glen Rounds.)

Q.S.398.2 Ae88ah 1954
Aesop’s Fables. Garden City Books, 1954. (Selected and edited by Laura Harris. Illus. by Tony Palazzo.)

S. 398.2452 Ae88 1961
Aesop's Fables. E. P. Dutton, 1961. (Translated by John Warrington. Illus. by Joan Kiddell-Monroe.)

S. 398 Ae8wi
Aesop's Fables. Airmont, 1965. (Retold by Blanche Winder.)

Q.S. 398.2 Ae88aL 1970
Aesop’s Fables. Windmill Books, 1970. (Illus. by Jacob Lawrence.)

S. 398 Ae8th
Aesop's Fables. Hemkunt Press, 1979. (Retold by Vernon Thomas. Illus. by Reboti Bhushan.)

S. 398 Ae8ho
Aesop's Fables. Viking Press, 1981. (Illus. by Heidi Holder.)

S. 398 Ae8ha
Aesop's Fables. Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1985. (Selected and Illus. by Michael Hague.)

Q.S. 398 Ae8a 1989
Aesop's Fables. Barrons, 1989. (Illus. by Fulvio Testa.)

S. 398.2 Ae88z
Aesop's Fables. Picture Book Studio, 1989. (Illus. by Lisbeth Zwerger.)

Q.S. 398.2 Ae88aa 1990
Aesop's Fables. Chronicle Books, 1990. (Compiled by Russell Ash and Bernard Higton.)

S. 398.2 Ae88z 1991
Aesop's Fables. Picture Book Studio, 1991. (Illus. by Lisbeth Zwerger.)

Q. S.398.2 Ae882009
Aesop's Fables. Pavilion Children's Books, 2009. (Retold and Illus. by Alice Shirley.)

Q. S.398.2 W316a2010
Aesop's Fables. Anderson, 2010. (Retold by Fiona Waters. Illus. by Fulvio Testa.)

S. 398 Ae8mc and 881 A3.E1964
Aesop. Aesop: Five Centuries of Illustrated Fables. Metropolitan Museum of Art; distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1964. (Selected by John J. McKendry. Note: The illustrations are virtual facsims. of the original prints in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.)

Q.S. 398.2 Ae88aw 1984
Aesop for Children. Jedediah Clauss & Sons, 1984. (Illus. by Milo Winter.)

S.398.20938 M7229a
Aesop's Fables: A Pop-up Book of Classic Tales. Little Simon, 2010. (Paper engineering by Kees Moerbeek. Illus. by Chris Beatrice and Bruce Whatley.)

SE. C498
City Mouse-Country Mouse and Two More Mouse Tales from Aesop. Scholastic, 1987. (Illus. by John Wallner.)

S. 398 Ae8te
Aesop. The Complete Fables. Penguin, 1998. (Trans. by Olivia Temple and Robert Temple.)

S. 700.87 D6304
Disabled Fables: Aesop's Fables. Star Bright Books, 2004. (Illus. by Cyril Deakins.)

S.398.2 M8969e
Eternal Leaf Art: Aesop's Fables. Vikasam Books, 2011. (Retold by Vasantha Mukthavaram.)

S. 398 Ae8de
Fables from Aesop. Blackie, 1964. (Trans. by Patrick Gregory and Justina Gregory. Selected and Illus. by David Levine.)

S. 398 Ae8L
The Fables of Aesop. Gambit, 1975.

S. 398.2 Ae88c
Fables of Aesop, According to Sir Roger L'estrange. Dover, 1967. (Illus. by Alexander Calder. Unabridged reproduction of 1931 edition.)

S. 398.2 Ae88aj 1966
The Fables of Aesop, Selected, Told Anew, and Their History Traced by Joseph Jacobs. Schocken Books, 1966. (Illus. by Richard Heighway.)

S. 398.2 Ae88f
Forty Fabulous Fables of Aesop. Promethean, 1982. (By Richard M. Krill. Illus. by Peggy Grant.)

S. An78a
Anno, Mitsumasa. Anno's Aesop: A Book of Fables. Orchard Books, 1989.

S. 398.2452 B141a
Bader, Barbara. Aesop & Company: With Scenes from his Legendary Life. Houghton Mifflin, 1991. (Illus. by Arthur Giesert.)

S. 398.2 B43b
Bennett, Charles H. Bennett's Fables from Aesop and Others, Translated into Human Nature. Viking Press,1978.

S. B4683a
Beyer, Ernestine. Aesop with a Smile. Reilly & Lee,1960. (Illus. by Vee Guthrie.)

SE. B4772d
Bierhorst, John. Doctor Coyote: A Native American's Aesop's Fables. MacMillan, 1987. (Illus. by Wendy Watson.)

Q.S. 398.21 C192e 1988
Carle, Eric. Eric Carle's Treasury of Classic Stories for Children by Aesop, Hans Christian Andersen, and the Brothers Grimm. Orchard Books,1988.

Q. S.398.2 C1922r
Carle, Eric. The Rabbit and the Turtle: Aesop's Fables. Orchard Books, 2008.

Q.S. 398.2 C1922t
Carle, Eric. Twelve Tales from Aesop. Philomel Books, 1980.

S. 811 C639a
Coblentz, Stanton Arthur. Aesop’s Fables. C.R. Gibson, 1968. (Drawings by Henry Syverson.)

SE. C85a FACSIM.
Crane, Walter. The Baby's Own Aesop: Being the Fables, Condensed in Rhyme, With Portable Morals. Holp Shuppan, 1981. (Illus. by Edmund Evans. Original edition published 1887.)

S. 398 Ae8do
Dolch, Edward W., Marguerite Dolch, and Beulah F. Jackson. Aesop's Stories for Pleasure Reading. Garrard Press, 1951. (Illus. by M. Dolch.)

Q.S. 398.24 G131t
Galdone, Paul. Three Aesop Fox Fables. Clarion Books, 1971.

Q. S.813.54 H242p
Harris, John and Calef Brown. Pop-up Aesop. Getty, 2005.

TEXT. S. 372.6 TRILL1988
Hegeman, Dr. Kathryn T. Aesop's Fables: My Book about Reading, Writing, Thinking: Creative Approaches to Language. Trillium Press, 1988.

S. 398 Ae8jo
Jones, Harold. Tales from Aesop. MacRae Books, 1981.

SE. K416ja
Kent, Jack. Jack Kent’s Fables of Aesop. Parent’s Magazine Press, 1972.

SE. K416mo
Kent, Jack. More Fables of Aesop. Parents’ Magazine Press, 1974.

S.398.2452 L9553f
Lowry, Amy. Fox Tales: Four Fables from Aesop. Holiday House, 2012.

Q. S.398.2 Ae88aly
Lynch, Tom. Fables from Aesop. Viking, 2000.

S. 398.2452 M132a
McClintock, Barbara. Animal Fables from Aesop. Godine, 1991.

Q.S. 398.2 M1637e
McFarland, John B. The Exploding Frog and Other Fables from Aesop. Little, Brown, 1981. (lllus. By James Marshall.)

S. 398.2 M177a
McGovern, Ann. Aesop's Fables. Scholastic, 1963. (Illus. by A. M. McClaskey.)

S. 821 M582a
Michie, James. Aesop's Fables. Cape, 1989. (Illus. by John Vernon Lord.)

S.398.2 M829m
Morpurgo, Michael. The McElderry Book of Aesop's Fables. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2005. (Illus. by Emma Chichester Clark.)

Q. S.398.2 N143a2011
Naidoo, Beverley. Aesop's Fables. Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2011. (Illus. by Piet Grobler.)

Q. S.398.2 Or3l2000
Orgel, Doris. The Lion and the Mouse: and Other Aesop's Fables. Dorling Kindersley, 2000. (Illus. by Bert Kitchen.)

S. 398.24 P289a
Paxton, Tom. Aesop's Fables. Morrow Junior Books, 1988. (Illus. by Robert Rayevsky.)

SE. P289b and S. 398.2 P289b
Paxton, Tom. Belling the Cat and Other Aesop's Fables. Morrow Junior Books, 1990. (Illus. by Robert Rayevsky.)

Q.SE. P289bi
Paxton, Tom. Birds of a Feather and Other Aesop’s Fables. Morrow Junior Books, 1993. (Illus. by Robert Rayevsky.)

Q. S.398.2 Ae88ap
Pinkney, Jerry. Aesop's Fables. SeaStar Books, 2000.

S. 811 R259f and 881 A3.ER1966
Rees, Ennis. Fables from Aesop. Oxford University Press, 1966. (Illus. by J. J. Grandville.)

S. 398.2452 R259f 1985
Reeves, James. Fables From Aesop. P. Bedrick Books, 1985. (Illus. by Maurice Wilson.)

S. 398.2452 R259f 1962
Reeves, James. Fables from Aesop. Henry Z. Walck, 1962. (Illus. by Maurice Wilson.)

SE. R361o
Rice, Eve. Once in a Wood: Ten Tales from Aesop. Greenwillow, 1979.

S. 398.2 Sa582h
San Jose, Christine. The Hidden Picture Book of Aesop’s Fables. Boyds Mills Press; Distributed by St. Martin's Press, 1995. (Illus. by Charles Jordan.)

Q.S.398.2 Sn24a
Sneed, Brad. Aesop's Fables. Dial Books for Young Readers, 2003.

Q.S. 398.2452 T428a:E
Thuswaldner, Werner. Aesop’s Fables. North-South Books, 1994. (Illus. by Gisela Durr. Translated by Anthea Bell.)

S.398.2 Ur35li
Uribe, Veronica. Little Book of Fables. Douglas & McIntyre, 2004. (Illus. by Constanza Bravo.)

Q. S.398.2 W212u
Ward, Helen. Unwitting Wisdom: an Anthology of Aesop's Fables. Chronicle Books, 2004.

S. 398 W332a
Watson, Carol. Aesop's Fables. Hayes Books, 1982. (Illus. by Nick Price.)

SE. W5823a
White, Anne Terry. Aesop’s Fables. Random House, 1964. (Illus. by Helen Siegl.)

Q.S. 811 Y78s
Yolen, Jane. A Sip of Aesop. Blue Sky Press, 1995. (Illus. by Karen Barbour.)

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Single Illustrated Tales from Aesop

This list is composed of single, illustrated adaptations of some of the more common fables from Aesop. The tales have been grouped by the original Aesop's fable and then subarranged alphabetically by author.

The Ant and the Grasshopper

SE. K99es
The Ant and the Grasshopper, A Georgian Folk Tale. Foreign Languages Pub. House, 1956. (Trans. by Fainna Solasko.)

S. 811 C48j
Ciardi, John. John J. Plenty and Fiddler Dan, a New Fable of the Grasshopper and the Ant. J.P. Lippincott, 1963. (Illus. By Madeline Gekiere.)

S.398.2 P785a
Poole, Amy Lowry. The Ant and the Grasshopper. Holiday House, 2000.

The Bat, the Birds, and the Beast

Q. S.398.2 M145b
MacDonald, Margaret Read. Bat's Big Game. Albert Whitman & Co., 2008. (Illus. by Eugenia Nobati.)

The Crow and the Pitcher

Q. S.398.2 B815c
Brown, Stephanie Gwyn. Professor Aesop's The Crow and the Pitcher. Tricycle Press, 2003.

The Dog and the Bone

SE.Y84o
Young, Ed. The Other Bone. Harper & Row, 1984.

The Fox and the Grapes

Q.S.398.2 P172l
Palatini, Margie. Lousy Rotten Stinkin' Grapes. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2009. (Illus. by Barry Moser.)

The Fox and the Stork

Q. S.398.2 R855f
Ruhmann, Karl. The Fox and the Stork: A Fable by Aesop. North-South Books, 2003. (Translated by Anthea Bell. Illus. by Alessandra Roberti.)

The Hare and the Tortoise

SE. Ae88h
The Hare and the Tortoise. McGraw-Hill, 1962. (Illus. by Paul Galdone.)

SE.Ae88h 1981
The Hare and the Tortoise. Troll Associates, 1981. (Illus. By Arthur Friedman.)

Q.S. 398.2 C2792h
Castle, Caroline. The Hare and the Tortoise. Dial Books for Young Readers, 1985. (Illus. by Peter Weevers.)

SE. D85h
DuBois, William Pene and Lee Po. The Hare and the Tortoise and La Liebre y la Tortuga. Doubleday, 1972. (Text in English and Spanish.)

Q.SE. J712h
Jones, Carol. The Hare and the Tortoise. Houghton Mifflin, 1996.

Q. SE. C8854r
Crow, Kristyn. The Really Groovy Story of the Tortoise and the Hare. Albert Whitman, 2011. (Illus. by Christina Forshay.)

Q. S.398.2 M117t
McAllister, Angela. The Tortoise and the Hare: an Aesop's Fable. Frances Lincoln, 2001. (With woodcuts by Jonathan Heale.)

S.398.2 St47t
Stevens, Janet. The Tortoise and the Hare: An Aesop's Fable. Holiday House, 1984.

Q.SE.W212h 1999
Ward, Helen. The Hare and the Tortoise: a Fable From Aesop. Millbrook Press, 1999.

SE.W64h
Wildsmith, Brian. The Hare and the Tortoise. Franklin Watts, 1967.

The Lion and the Mouse

Q.SE.J712L
Jones, Carol. The Lion and the Mouse. Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

SE.L5883b
Lewis, Shari. The Boat Contest: Featuring Aesop's The Lion and the Mouse. Time-Life Books, 1993.

SE.Ae88L
The Lion and the Mouse. Troll Associates, 1981. (Illus. by Bob Dole.)

Q. S.398.2 B9179m
Mouse & Lion. Scholastic, 2011. (Retold by Rand Burkert. Illus. by Nancy Ekholm Burkert.)

Q. S.398.2 P656l
Pinkney, Jerry. The Lion & The Mouse. Little, Brown and Co. Books for Young Readers, 2009.

Q. S.398.2 W349l:E
Watts, Bernadette. The Lion and the Mouse: an Aesop Fable. North-South Books, 2000.

Q.S.398.2 W661L
Wood, A. J. The Lion and the Mouse: An Aesop's Fable. Millbrook Press, 1995. (Illus. by Ian Andrews.)

S.398.2452 L661
Young, Ed. The Lion and the Mouse: An Aesop Fable. Doubleday, 1979.

The Sun and the Wind

Q. S.398.2 F761c
The Contest Between the Sun and the Wind: an Aesop's Fable. August House Little Folk, 2008. (Retold by Heather Forest. Illus. by Susan Gaber.)

S.E. L528s
Lehn, Cornelia. The Sun and the Wind: An Aesop Fable. Faith and Life Press, 1983. (Illus. by Robert W. Regier.)

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

SE.B538t
Biro, Val. Town Mouse and Country Mouse. Wright Group, 1991.

Q.SE.B756to
Brett, Jan. Town Mouse, Country Mouse. Putnam's, 1994.

SE.C3112t
Cauley, Lorinda Bryan. The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. G.P. Putnam, 1984.

SE.C844t
Craig, Helen. The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. Candlewick Press, 1992.

Q.SE.F535c
Fisher, Maxine P. The Country Mouse and the City Mouse: "Christmas is Where the Heart Is". Random House, 1994. (Illus. by Jerry Smath.)

S.811 F9191c
Fritsch, Muriel L. The City Mouse and the Country Mouse. Vantage Press, 1962.

Q.SE.J712t 1995
Jones, Carol. Town Mouse, Country Mouse. Houghton Mifflin, 1995.

SE.Sch21t 1996
Schecter, Ellen. The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. Gareth Stevens Pub., 1996. (Illus. by Holly Hannon.)

Q. S.398.2 W212t
The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. Templar Books/Candlewick, 2012. (Retold and Illus. by Helen Ward.)

SE.C8322 1979
The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse: an Aesop Fable. Troll Associates, 1979. (Illus. by T. R. Garcia.)

SE.W564c
Wheeler, Jody. The City Mouse and the Country Mouse. Grosset & Dunlap, 1985.

Other Tales

SE. B867b
Buhler, Cynthia von. But Who Will Bell the Cats? Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.

Q.S.398.2 M8347l
Morrison, Toni, et al. Little Cloud and Lady Wind. Simon & Schuster for Young Readers, 2010.