Created for the young reader by Dr. Kathryn T. Hegeman, each volume in this series studies 11 different fables by Aesop. Each story is told in a few paragraphs on one page, and then the moral of the story is written in bold directly beneath it. Several vocabulary words from the story are also listed. The page next to each story includes a black and white drawing of the story for children to color. Two worksheets are included for each fable. These worksheets review the vocabulary words, include brief writing activities, and cover parts of speech, capitalization, punctuation, and more. There are many drawing activities where children draw things related to the fable and then describe what they have drawn and the relation to the story. Sometimes students are instructed to list “action words” or nouns from the stories; sometimes they match vocabulary words with synonyms or antonyms. The activities often provide practice in language arts skills while teaching other lessons. For example, students are instructed to list things a good friend does after reading a story about a bad friend and to write down things a pet owner must know after reading about a bad dog. The worksheets provide a variety of exercises so students don’t get bored, and they are as much concerned with teaching good character as good English skills. The reading level gradually increases from second to fourth grade as the books progress, but the activities and layout remain virtually the same. These volumes provide excellent short reading selections for this age group, with wonderful morals to be learned. Books are 48 pgs, pb. ~ Rachel