Most of the fables are from the 1912 Heineman edition, and those are presented in the original English with minor changes; others were selected by Anno from other editions and translated from his Japanese retellings. Mr. Fox's stories are original to Mr. Anno.

When Freddy Fox finds a book in the woods, he takes it home to his father Mr. Fox, and asks him to read it. Here begins a delightful dual narrative, with the actual text of the "book" at the top of the page, and Mr. Fox's "reading" of it along the bottom. The book is (of course) a collection of Aesop's fables, and Anno presents forty-one of them, from well-known classics like The Grasshopper and the Ants and The Fox and the Grapes, to lesser-known works such as The Miser and The Blacksmith and His Dog.

What distinguishes Anno's Aesop from other collections, is the second narrative strand, in which Mr. Fox "reads" these fables to his son, cleverly creating a story to match the pictures, and obscuring the fact that he does not know what the words say. This produces some hilarious moments, particularly when Mr. Fox interprets the behavior of Aesop's many foxes in the best possible way. Readers young and old will relish this clever book, which invites them to consider the many ways in which images can be interpreted. This may be my favorite Aesop thus far! Highly, highly recommended. ( )

In a twist on the traditional Aesop, this book contains parallel fables. At the top of the page is a facsimile "book" with Anno's illustrations and traditional text, and at the bottom are comments by an illiterate fox who is "reading" the book to his young offspring. Of course in this version, the fox is always the hero of the tale! ( )