Strekoza y Muravyey - The Grasshopper and the Ant (Russinan)

Strekoza y Muravyey - The Grasshopper and the Ant (Russinan)

Language

Russian

Descriptions

By Ivan A. Krylov

In this classic fable, the grasshopper playfully hops and plays his fiddle. As he rests,, he observes a colony of ants working hard to store food for winter. As one little ant struggles with a cartload of food, the grasshopper talks to him, expounding his philosophy of how the 'world owes him a living' , and gets the little ant to dance along to his fiddling. The queen ant arrives and scares the small ant back to work. The ant queen cautions the grasshopper that when winter comes, his tune of merriment will be different. However, the grasshopper chooses to ignore her, and goes on with his carefree attitude. Winter comes, and the grasshopper, near starvation, stumbles across the ants. They take him in and warm him up. The queen tells him only those who work can eat, so he must play for them.

Krilov ( 1769-1844), a sort of Russian Aesop, wrote fables for children with morals involving animals.
Though this fable was meant to be told aloud, the beautiful illustrations will entice youngsters to read this fable independently.

Ages 4-8; Pages 10; Boardbook