In the Author's words

Aesop's The Fox and the Grapes, retold by Pauline Mackay.

Several years ago I was looking for fruit related ideas to build up activities to complement my book ‘Fruit Lane’. One of the characters in that book is called ‘Mr Grape’ and as I was following a fruit trail on the internet, I stumbled across Aesop’s fable ‘The Fox and the Grapes’. I’d already been writing little poems and songs to accompany my different characters, so it’s perhaps no surprise that a ‘Fox and Grapes’ poem started formulating in my head. I rewrote it a few times, but the opportunity to actually use it with reference to my book never arose. Years later, just before Christmas, I was due to run a fruit-related storytelling session with a group of multicultural children.  I remembered my poem but felt it might be a little too advanced for non-native English speakers. So I rewrote it as a short, simple story with plenty of repetition, which mirrors the repetitive jumping of the Fox as he tries to get the grapes.  As it turned out, I didn’t read my retelling of ‘The Fox and the Grapes’, but a different story I’d written about a snowman with a fruity twist! 

Now, finally, it has been produced as a book in many language editions and this fits perfectly with why the story came to exist in its present form. The repetition of language is a crucial element, aiming  to encourage confident reading in native speakers and build familiarity of language in children learning a second language. 

In the original Aesop’s Fable, the Fox is hungry, but mine is thirsty, which gives scope to make the sun almost akin to a character. This is particularly helpful when you only have one character to begin with! This aspect is exploited to maximum effect in Dylan’s illustrations as his fabulous sun gets bigger and more dominant as the story evolves. By the time the Fox is lying on the ground with his tongue hanging out -one of my favorite pictures- the sun is at its most impressive. 

 

Almost, but not quite!

In rewriting the fable, one of the important aspects for me was to expand on the Fox’s attempts to reach the grapes. I imagined the Fox giving himself little pep talks and trying to work out why he wasn’t succeeding. This led to his coming at the grapes from different angles, which was very challenging to depict successfully in the illustrations in a way that could hold the readers’ attention and not be repetitive pictorially although repetitive textually. The many expressions and close-ups of the Fox as he moves around the grapes capture his frustration perfectly. The moment when he just manages to touch them with the tip of his tongue has always been my favorite in the story, so the corresponding illustration never fails to make me smile.  The additional humor of convincing himself the ground is a little higher from one approach to the grapes can be fully appreciated because in the previous picture where ‘the sun is a fire’, Dylan has shown the ground is totally and utterly flat. 

The Sun on fire.

As with many of Aesop’s fables, there isn’t a happy ending. The Fox doesn’t get the grapes. This amazing little tale has reverberated down through the centuries and is still as valid today as it was long ago. Human nature, which Aesop’s animal characters reflect, has not changed! We still have a tendency to turn up our nose at something if we can’t have it and say it wasn’t worth having anyway. Only this time, in ‘The Fox and the Grapes’, the final impression is not necessarily the Fox’s handling of his disappointment, but perhaps the redeeming qualities of that wonderful little hedgehog running after him with a grape!

On sale now from Ablekids Press Available in English and bilingual English with French, Gaelic, German, Italian, Malayalam, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Turkish versions.

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The Fox and the Grapes

All jobs present their own challenges and this little picture book was no exception. A simple story based on Aesop’s fables for The Fox and the Grapes retold by Ablekids Press.

 I hadn’t heard the story in a long time.  It’s one of those tales that you half remember from primary school.  My vague recollection is from one of those many times when the teacher got you sit down crossed legged with your fellow class mates in a little circle to tell you a story. 

Reading through the manuscript in preparation to sketch out the story I realized my memory of the story was off a bit so I’d be approaching the story fresh.  It’s a little daunting starting a new book with so many ideas swirling around in my head yet to be translated to paper but also very exciting with all those possibilities.

 

Double page opening artwork, setting the scene

The story is set around a vine with grapes dangling down just out of reach and poor old thirsty Fox’s efforts to get a juicy mouthful.   He tries over and over again and just can’t reach them and eventually gives up a little more tired and thirsty than when he started. The moral to the story is that “Any fool can despise what he cannot get” Sour grapes!

I thankfully got the chance to establish the wider setting where the story takes place in a wonderful double page opening artwork, which would be book ended with a similar scene.  The inclusion of this establishing shot really helps draw the reader in and gave me the chance to add plenty of surrounding details, a little road, a town on a hill and plenty of other characters. It gives the story a wider environment and sense of geography allowing the reader to explore the little nooks and crannies of the area allowing for their imagination to fill in other little potential narratives going on elsewhere.  

A world full of characters

These little details really came to enrich the visual palette of the story the farmyard characters became the in story audience that followed the Fox’s efforts in trying to get the grapes.  I really liked the little hedgehog father and son characters that I’d designed and I felt it was very natural in the story that they would jump down from their fence post and dander over to see what the Fox was doing.  So as the Fox plans his next move and jumps at the grapes over the pages the two little hedgehogs wander over to watch. I could imagine them having a little conversation the father telling his son some words of wisdom relating to the Fox’s efforts. 

Near the end of the story the son is moved at the Fox’s plight in not being able to get his quarry and on the last double page we see that the little hedgehog has picked up a fallen grape and is running after the Fox. 

  

The most important thing is to illustrate what is told in the story so it works as a narrative with both words and pictures complimenting each other. I love the possibilities in what is not written down and the ability to add something to the story to create something new that fits the tone and is in keeping with the spirit of the tale.  The whole process in doing the illustrations in this book was greatly enriched by the great collaborative work relationship with the publisher Ablekids and our willingness to push the possibilities of this simple little fable to create a great modern retelling of this tale.  

Of course it didn’t all go smoothly some problems came up and several revisions of certain pages needed to be made.  I felt like the Fox jumping for the grapes at one point! The confines of the setting could be challenging and the geography of the scene needed to be just right as a change to one page, the movement of the vine or wall impacted on how the other pages worked.  

The almost defeated Fox.

The Fox didn’t succeed his goal it was always just out of reach. Thankfully this is where we differed from the narrative the finished book was wonderful project to illustrate and I’m very proud of what we accomplished, reworking an old tale and adding to it our own unique personal perspective to create a new little  chapter to the history of Aesop’s fables.

On sale now from Ablekids Press Available in English and bilingual English with French, Gaelic, German, Italian, Malayalam, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Turkish versions.

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