The Contest Between the Sun and the Wind: An Aesop's Fable - Softcover

Forest, Heather

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1939160669 ISBN 13: 9781939160669

Publisher: August House, 2013

Synopsis

A beautifully illustrated tale that encourages gentleness and kindness.

Walking along a winding road, a man finds himself swept into a magical world where a contest of strength between the sun and the wind takes place. The sun and the wind compete to see who can remove the man's coat.

The howling wind boasts and bullies, but the shivering man tightly clutches his coat. With warmth and light and a bit of gentle persuasion, the sun encourages the man to remove his own coat!

This timeless tale from the fables of Aesop offers a poignant portrait of the power of gentleness. With a storyteller's sense of the spoken word, Heather Forest's dynamic retelling captures the essence and cadence of boasts and wagers. Susan Gaber's dramatic illustrations imagine a dream-like universe filled with vivid moments of destruction, unexpected beauty, and transformation.

This Aesop fable emphasizes the strength of gentleness and kindness. Readers will learn the importance of resourcefulness, respect, and courage.

About this title

About the Author:

Heather Forest Bio:

Heather Forest's unique minstrel style of telling stories blends her original music, folk guitar, poetry, and prose along with song and the spoken word to give her stories an uncommon warmth and charm. She has toured widely performing her repertoire of world folktales for the past thirty years to theatres, major storytelling festivals, schools and conferences throughout the world. Heather's books have received many prestigious awards including the Children's Choice Award, Parent's Choice Award, CCBC Choices, ABC Best Books for Children, Best Children's Books of the Year, Book Sense Winter Children's Picks, and the National Parenting Publication Awards (NAPPA) among others. Heather is currently working on her tenth book with August House, a collection of ancient and epic tales. Ms. Forest holds a Master's Degree in Storytelling and she is a recipient of the Circle of Excellence Award presented by the National Storytelling Network. Her many performance credits include The Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., The National Storytelling Festival, The Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, Tales of Graz Festival in Austria, the Sidmouth International Festival in England and the Glistening Waters Storytelling Festival in New Zealand.

Susan Gaber Bio:

Susan began her career working at Newsday as a free-lance illustrator for ten years. Her illustration work has appeared in numerous magazines and she has won many awards for her illustrations. She has illustrated over twenty children's picture books. Whether working in muted impressionistic tones, in more vibrant colors, or in a folksy, homespun medium, Susan Gaber has built an impressive list of illustration credits, and has garnered much critical acclaim for her work. Working in watercolors, acrylics, or colored pencils, Gaber's illustrations "captivate the eye," as Barbara Elleman noted in School Library Journal. At times her artistic contributions imbue stories with a folksy feel, while others impart a lushness and vividness of tone, sometimes gaining the feel of elegant fine-art reproductions. Several years ago Susan's original paintings used to illustrate The Little Red Hen were displayed in the main branch of the New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street to celebrate Children's Book Week. Her versatility is particularly well suited to mythic stories and folk tales such as The Baker's Dozen or Stone Soup, both written by Heather Forest. Susan currently lives with her family in Huntington, New York.

From Booklist:

Storyteller Forest recasts this fable from Aesop in simple, crystalline language and occasional rhyme. As a man wearing a coat walks down a road, the sun and wind watch. The wind, puffing itself up, declares that he is stronger than the sun, but the sun challenges: Let’s see who can take the coat off of that man. The gray wind, with pointy teeth, bushy eyebrows, and a fierce visage, whirls away, which only makes the man cling more tightly to his coat. The rosy-cheeked sun, with rainbows in its eyes, brightens the world until the man bursts into song, unbuttons his coat, and uses it for a pillow under a tree. Moral? Gentleness beats bluster. Gaber’s wild and vivid images reflect, augment, and illuminate the story: the last spread shows not only lion and lamb but also a tree in all stages of growth from bare branch to full leaf. A deeply satisfying retelling, worthy of pondering. Grades K-3. --GraceAnne A. DeCandido

About this edition

• Publisher: August House
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1939160669
• ISBN 13: 9781939160669
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Gaber Susan