The Three Grasshoppers

In this quirky variation of Aesop's story about the grasshopper and the ant, three grasshoppers sit around all day playing musical instruments together until they remember the moral of Aesop's fable (""We'd better do something so we don't end up like that poor singing grasshopper!""). The three then immediately give up singing in favor of studying the ants and similarly replenishing their own depleted food stocks. Bosca's story takes some unpredictable plot turns as the three friends begin competing to acquire their own individual huge storehouses full of food for winter. Ferri suffuses his paintings with fall colors as the grasshoppers raise armies and fight over turf. He depicts the irresistible heroes donning medieval helmets and shields, and becoming so preoccupied with battle that ""nobody noticed the large dark shadow moving closer and closer."" When the shadow becomes an enormous elephant foot about to stomp on their comparatively tiny storage barns, the three friends avert doom by distracting the elephant with their music. Compared to the succinct punch of an Aesop moral, Bosca's muddied theme seems needlessly protracted. Ferri's clever artwork outshines Bosca's lackluster dialogue and tedious prose, but youngsters will likely respond to the quick-thinking tiny heroes. Ages 4-8.