The Lion and the Mouse Book

Prolific picture-book author and storyteller Eric A. Kimmel takes the classic Brothers Grimm fairy-tale of The Fisherman and His Wife and transplants it to Mexico during the time of the Aztecs in this picture-book retelling. When the eponymous fisherman catches a divine turtle, he is granted a wish in return for setting his captive free. The fisherman's wife is outraged that he only asked for four fish as a prize, and sends him back with progressively more grandiose wishes - for a stone house and wealth, to be king, to be a god - until finally both the turtle and the fisherman lose their patience...

Kimmel has transplanted a number of European and Euro-American fairy and folktales to the American southwest - Little Red Hot , The Three Little Tamales , The Runaway Tortilla - but The Fisherman and the Turtle is the first of his titles that I have read to be set in Aztec Mexico. I enjoyed the story well enough, and appreciated Mexican artist Martha Aviles' colorful illustrations, created using acrylic and watercolor paint. That said, I can't help but wish that, rather than transplanting stories to these locations and cultures, Kimmel had retold stories that actually hail from such regions and peoples. Aztec lore, in particular, feels underrepresented in American children's books. Still, that is a philosophical difference I have with the storyteller, rather than a critique of the actual storytelling, so I would still recommend this to young folk and fairy-tale lovers, particularly those who enjoy such transplanted tales.