Aesop's Fables

Author: Aesop
Original Title: Aesopica
Genre: Fable

Original publisher: N/A
Date first published: N/A
Date first read: Around age 5 or 6

Main character(s): multiple
Favorite quote: N/A

Synopsis:
The fables, allegedly written by a Greek slave who lived in the 5th century BCE, are some of the most well known short stories with moral teachings in the world. Some of the most famous fables include The Hare and the Tortoise, The Fox and the Crow, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Ant and the Grasshopper, The Fox and the Crow, The Fox and the Stork, The Goose That Laid Golden Eggs, The Lion and the Mouse, and many, many more.

Review:
Though I have, at various points in my life starting at age 5 or 6, read the many fables of Aesop, I actually started being interested in them because my Grandpa told them to me.

The one that stuck with me the most is surprisingly not the arguably most famous The Hare and the Tortoise, but The Fox and the Stork. I don't know why that story stuck with me the most, but I do remember that I liked the stork outwitting the sly fox. The ending gave me a sort of satisfaction, knowing that even the most cunning among us can be outwitted by the most unassuming person. And, like I said, it was one of the many stories that were told to me by my Grandpa, and that alone is sufficient reason for me to like it.

Another favorite is The Fox and the Crow. Again, I first knew about it because my Grandpa told it to me. I think my Grandpa had eventually given me a copy of all the fables, so that I could re-read them whenever I wanted.

Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales

Author: Hans Christian Andersen
Original Title: Eventyr
Genre: Children's book

Original publisher: various
Date first published: various
Date first read: Around age 3 or 4

Main character(s): multiple
Favorite quote: N/A

Synopsis:
There are many stories and various collections of stories among Andersen's tales. Some of the most famous stories are probably The Little Mermaid, a story about a mermaid who falls in love with a human prince; The Emperor's New Clothes, a story in which a vain emperor winds up walking around naked in his city; The Little Girl with the Matches, a very sad story about a little girl who has to sell matches on Christmas eve, but who lives some of the most beautiful moments in her short little life when she lights those matches; The Princess and the Pea, a story of how a queen attempts to find the right wife for her son; The Steadfast Tin Soldier, a story of a toy soldier and his love for a toy ballerina; Thumbelina, a story of the adventures of a tiny girl, not bigger than your thumb; The Wild Swans, a story in which a sister almost sacrifices her life in order to free her brothers from an evil curse; and my personal favorite, The Snow Queen, a story of how a young girl named Gerda seeks to free her friend Kay from the evil Snow Queen.

Review:
Hans Christian Andersen's tales have entertained generations of children - and adults. Although unlike today's fairy tales, many of his stories did not have the "Happily Ever After," I am still very much in love with them. My personal favorite is The Snow Queen, which is at its heart a story of the fight between good and evil but also about friendship and dedication to those one loves. It is one of the stories that does have a happy ending, though it doesn't come easy.

I will definitely be reading these fairy tales to my kids one day.

Alice im Wunderland (Alice in Wonderland)

Author: Lewis Carroll
Original Title: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Genre: Children's book

Original publisher: Macmillan
Date first published: 26. November 1865
Date first read: Ca. November 1992

Main character(s): Alice
Favorite quote: N/A

Synopsis:

On a warm sunny day, during a picnic day with her family, a little girl named Alice finds herself very bored.  Her boredom quickly disappears, however, when she sees a white rabbit, dressed in a waistcoat, disappear in a rabbit hole while muttering, “I’ll be late.”  Alice follows the rabbit and finds herself in a strange world, a wonderland, full of even stranger characters.  There’s the Cheshire Cat, who can appear everywhere and anywhere and leaves only a smile behind; the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, whom Alice joins for a never ending tea party; and many other unusual characters that drive Alice from adventure to adventure. In the end, she attends a trial before the Queen of Hearts - whose favorite thing is to behead people that annoy her - and almost gets in trouble for defying her. Before that can happen, however, Alice wakes up at the family picnic, realizing she has fallen asleep and leaving the reader with the assumption she had dreamt the whole story.

Review:

Alice in Wonderland is one of the most famous stories in the English speaking world, and really world-wide.  Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Dodgson, based the story at least in part on his acquaintance with the Liddell family, in particular little Alice Liddell and her sisters.  Different people have tried to interpret the story in different ways, finding different reasons for Dodgson writing the story in the first place.  

The most common explanation is that the book was written to entertain the Liddell sisters, using one of them Alice as a proxy to help them make the story come alive.  Some theories even go so far as to posit that there were some unsavory reasons for Dodgson focusing on Alice.  This story behind the friendship between Dodgson and the Liddells is quite lengthy, and there’s plenty of information to be found on it elsewhere. 

However, the most interesting interpretation of Alice in Wonderland is one that posits that Dodgson wrote the story as a critique on modern mathematics.  The theory explains that Dodgson, who was a mathematics professor, saw new concepts in mathematics, such as imaginary numbers, as complicated and not real mathematics, a craziness of the likes only found in Wonderland.  All the characters, all the actions the characters in Wonderland take, appear outlandish by any standard - they seem mad, like the Mad Hatter.  Dodgson, who was a traditionalist and believed only tried-and-true concepts of mathematics should be taught, could have used the story of Wonderland and particularly the land of Wonderland to criticize these new concepts without truly revealing himself and risking his position as a professor that has accepted these new ideas.

For most new readers of Alice in Wonderland, the story is just a little crazy, a little funky, but mostly entertaining.  It is a good way to get young readers to develop an imagination.  Wonderland is truly a weird place, which in order to fully appreciate one must construct mentally while reading.  The exercise of making something as odd and illogical as Wonderland come alive is something that truly fires up the imagination of anyone and certainly of children.  It is a great way to foster this kind of thinking in young people, to have him develop a sense of thinking outside the box, which is always useful.  

I barely remember reading the original, though of course I know the story nowadays. I know that I read it after visiting my dad's family in Koeln (Cologne), shortly after we made it into Germany. One of my cousin's gave me a copy, a tiny little booklet, which I still own somewhere.

I do enjoy the multiple ways the story has been filmed, from Disney's animated film to the newest Johnny Depp version. I also am a huge fan of the reimagined story as portrayed by Briana Garcia at When Curiosity Met Insanity.

I should probably re-read the original book.

Robinzon Kruzo (Robinson Crusoe)

Author: Daniel Dafoe
Original Title: The Life and Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
Genre: Adventure

Original publisher: William Taylor
Date first published: 25. April 1719
Date first read: ca. May 1992

Main character(s): Robinson Crusoe, Friday
Favorite quote: N/A

Synopsis: *SPOILERS*
The book is about Robinson Crusoe, an English gentleman, who after adventures on sea and in the New World, winds up stranded on an island for some 20-odd years. After his shipmates die off, he is left alone to fend for himself, and so he does. He builds a home, makes his food, and otherwise tries to keep as much of his English customs as he can to avoid the depression caused from his loneliness. I believe he also becomes increasingly religious as time passes.

He also discovers that he is not truly alone. A tribe of natives from a neighboring island which practices cannibalism regularly comes to Crusoe's island to sacrifice prisoners. Crusoe saves one of them, whom he names Friday, and who becomes his servant. Eventually, Crusoe and Friday are rescued from the island by a ship that takes them back to England.

I can't quite recall the ending, but I believe that after returning home, Crusoe finds he has no money left. With his family believing him dead, his inheritance has been given away to others. He does manage to get money and restore his status through other means - but I don't recall how.

Review:
This was one of the last books I read in Cyrillic. I made my mom buy me this book, a book of Grimm's tales, and some other book - Gulliver's Travels, I think - while we were in Belgrade, waiting to find out what was happening in Bosnia. It was actually such a selfish thing to make my mom buy me those books - we barely had any money, and what we had, people didn't want to take. We were despised by many of them after all. But then again, I was 8 years old. I had no clue about these things.

I, of course, know the story nowadays, but I don't remember reading it at all. I just remember the cover of the book. So, I can't really say much about what I thought about the book. Knowing the story, my current thoughts on the general ideas expressed are that it is quintessentially a book of its period. Today, our sensitivities would be offended at the fact that native inhabitants are automatically labeled cannibals and become servants to the English, but given the time period when it was written, those were common perceptions of the English at that time. I peeked at Wikipedia, and they have a nice quote by James Joyce:

"He is the true prototype of the British colonist. … The whole Anglo-Saxon spirit is in Crusoe: the manly independence, the unconscious cruelty, the persistence, the slow yet efficient intelligence, the sexual apathy, the calculating taciturnity."
- Robinson Crusoe, Wikipedia entry

I think that probably sums up my current view of the book. It is a classic English read, of course, but as I read it when I was rather young, I really don't know how I viewed the storyline and whether re-reading the book would have the same impression on me.

Dobro Drvo (The Giving Tree)

Author: Shel Silverstein
Original Title: The Giving Tree
Genre: Children's book

Original publisher: Harper Collins
Date first published: 7. October 1964
Date first read: Around age 3

Main character(s): Boy, Tree
Favorite quote: "And the tree was happy"

Synopsis: *SPOILER-ISH*
The story revolves around a tree and a little boy, whom the tree loves. The boy starts using the tree as his playground, but with time, he winds up using all of the tree's parts (apples, branches, trunk, stump) at different stages of his life for his differing needs. It's a bitter-sweet story, but really wonderful.

Review:
This is the first book I ever read. At age 3. I loved it. I still do, and I like to think that it has inspired my views about life: The key to happiness is making your loved ones happy. They may not always show their love, but they do come back to you. :)