Eddie's Fabulous Fables
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REVIEW BY DAVID LAGRAFF
Eddie's Fabulous Fables performs the miracle of being not only a delightful children's book, but also a terrifically humorous read for adults. When I start a new book, I hold my breath as I begin the first sentence. That's where I know if it will be a yellow brick road to someplace exciting or a red brick wall to nowhere. Rest assured, you wonít be waiting to exhale here. Eddie's Fabulous Fables is George Orwell's Animal Farm on nitrous oxide, and you simply must not pass it by. Read it yourself first. Then, after you've laughed yourself sick, you can read it to your kid. It's a book of hysterically funny little stories and pictures, most of which can be read in five minutes or so. They're written by Eddie, an ex-patriate Serengetti giraffe who hangs out at Distlefink's farm with his friends Alex, a lazy steer, Jacob, a near-sighted crow, Julius, a grouchy turtle and lots of mice. When there's nothing to do, Eddie makes up outrageous stories and lies about his friends. Each story has a sort of moral. The first story, in which Alex the steer rescues a mouse and gets a meal in return, ends with the line, "A mouse in need can lead to a snack indeed!" My favorite was a variation on the Three Little Pigs entitled "The Three Little Giraffe's." The wolf has a bad cold. All he wants is a place to lie down and rest. The giraffe's main objection is that he doesn't like wolf hairs on the furniture. The wolf finally gains entry when he signs an affidavit that he is a vegetarian and promises to leave his teeth outside in a jar and vacuum up the bed when he's done using it. I laughed all the way through the story. Think of these fables as a way of taking a break from a world that has become way too serious. These funny animals are modern creatures who use credit cards, organize professional sports teams, push hard to be upwardly mobile, prefer neighborhoods without strip malls and get lousy grades in college. If you don't see yourself in some of these animal stories, you probably aren't human enough and will require further fabulous fables to make the adjustment. My hat is off to the Williamsí team. Here's hoping they soon come up with another collection of Eddie's fables. David G. LaGraff is a California novelist whose works can be found at various e-publishers.
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