renard the fox
TRANSCRIPT
INTRODUCTION
The book that we are analysing is Renard The Fox. The authors of
Renard The Fox are Rachel Anderson, David Bradby and Bob Dewar.
This book is really interesting to be read. We are analysing this
book in eight different parts.
Summary
Comment on language
Illustrations
Literary elements
Characterization
Themes
Comment on popularity
Use in the Malaysian ESL classroom
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SUMMARY
Renard The Fox consists of twelve stories:
1) Adam, Eve and Renard
2) Renard and Wolf
3) Renard and Crow
4) Renard and Heron
5) Renard and Wolf Go Fishing
6) Renard Changes Colour
7) Renard, Sheep and Donkey
8) Renard and the Eels
9) Renard and the Rooster
10) Renard Goes to Paradise
11) Renard and the Fatty Sausage
12) Renard and the Blue-Tit
The story actually is started from Adam and Eve, whereby they
were turned out of the garden of paradise because they cheated
against God’s rules. But, they looked so helpless that God
took pity on them and gave them a special stick. The special
stick could create animals. Renard was one of the creatures
that was born from the special stick. Same goes to the Wolf.
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Every story in this book portrays the cunning of this fox. The
Renard stories actually show a vigorous tradition of popular
humour commenting on behavior of kings, scholars, and
churchmen. In the behavior of the animals, we recognize many
human characteristics and failings. The Renard stories
remained popular for many centuries because they combined
realistic observation of the animal world with witty portrayal
of human characteristics. Foxes are creatures of great
cunning. For example, we have observed in this book whereby
the fox pretended to be dead or injured in order to steal the
food. The fox’s cunning can seem very close to human
hypocrisy, so when a medieval artist wanted to depict
hypocrisy or treachery he would often show the fox tricking of
the other animals.
COMMENT ON LANGUAGE
Renard the Fox is actually a folktale, ‘a trickster from
medieval European myth’ (Marshall, 2013)
Some sentences use the simple English language of which they
are quite short and simple. Some examples are ‘Help me. Wait for me.
I’m stuck.’ (pg28) They use a lot of conjunctions and linking words
such as ‘and’. An example is ‘And look what you’ve done!’
(pg19).
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Some use the poetic diction, which is rhyme. Examples of
rhyming sentences are “Finders keepers, losers weepers.” (pg16), “One, two,
three, and you can’t catch me!” (pg24) and “Wassail, wassail, all over the town!
Our bowl is white and our ale is brown.” (pg36)
Besides that, some use complex words choice that needs to be
interpreted, for example ‘He who laughs last laughs longest.’ (pg24)
It also uses lots of religious jargons. For example, they
contain words such as pilgrim, pilgrimage, priest, confess,
Pope, BibleLord, ‘God Almighty’ (pg17), ‘O Lord’ (pg23),
‘Amen’ (pg23), monastery (pg61), monk’s courtyard (pg62),
“Elysian fields of the hereafter” (pg65), and “seventh heaven”
(pg68). There are another examples of sentences that use
religious jargons, for example “If faith moves mountains, it
also helps rams up trees.” (pg43), ‘Our Father, shiny halo.’ (pg66) and
“For the sake of Gabriel and all the other angels, don’t break your vows.” (pg74)
There are also words that associate with nuance. Oxford
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines it as ‘a very slight
difference in meaning, sound, colour or somebody’s feelings
that is not usually very obvious.’ Some examples are “bounded
all the way home” (pg24), “nicked all my ducks” (pg37) and “pranced away”
(pg49).
It includes words that require cultural knowledge. Some
examples are lair (pg43), grazing (pg43), and lampreys (pg49). Oxford defines
lair as a place for humans to hide out and be alone, or an animal living place and
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hideouts. Grazing is a grass field where sheep and cows eat. Lampreys are
freshwater fish that attach themselves to other fish and suck their blood.
Some sentences incorporate sense of humour. For example,
‘Er, what’s that?’ said Cat, surprised, because the last time they’d
met, there had been claws drawn and fur flying. (pg69)
“And most skilfully, as though he’d been transporting enormous sausages
all his life, Cat gripped...” (pg71)
Some sentences use Latin terminologies such as “rigor mortis”.
According to the website of The Free Dictionary, rigor means
stiffness and mortis is actually the genitive of mors which
means death. In overall, this phrase means the stiffness of
death. On the other hand, some use French words, for example
“toilette” (pg52), “coq au vin” (pg57) and “savoir faire”
(pg71). Toilette means
the act or process of dressing or grooming oneself. Oxford
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines coq au vin as a French
dish of chicken cooked in wine. Meanwhile, savior faire means
the ability to behave in the appropriate way in social
situations.
There are lots of sentences which use idiomatic sayings. For
example, “Don’t count your chicks before they’re hatched, nor
your foxes before they’re skinned.” (pg47), “Once bitten,
twice shy.” (pg19), “crying over spilt milk” (pg28), “a few
bones to pick with” (pg32), “turning over a new leaf” (pg37),
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“forty winks” (pg54), “And blood’s always thicker than water.”
(pg56), “to save his skin” (pg59), ‘Silence is golden.’
(pg60), “through thick and thin” (pg69), “till death do us
part” (pg69), ‘A friend in need is a friend indeed.’ (pg69),
“all fair and square” (pg71), and “to quench a cat’s thirst”
(pg73).
However, there is an unpleasant element that exists in the
language used which is mild cursing. Some examples are “damned
cheese” (pg19), ‘Damned deceiving swine’ (pg48) , “What in
hell’s name are you doing?” (pg62) and “You reprobates! You
good-for-nothings!” (pg63).
ILLUSTRATIONS
Books illustrations are important in order to attract the
readers especially children. Picture books are profusely
illustrated books in which the illustrations are, to varying
degrees, essential to the enjoyment and understanding of the
story. According to Bodmer (1992), illustrations serve to
"expand, explain, interpret, or decorate a written text"
concerned with storytelling. Therefore, illustrations may
function in one or more of the following ways.
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1) Establish setting. Picture storybooks, however, strongly
or sometimes completely rely on illustrations to serve
these functions of a setting. For example, many places
setting can be found in this story through illustrations
such as at a lake, church and others.
2) Define and develop characters. The characters in picture
books must have specific traits that make them appealing
to the readers. Illustrations help develop the characters
by depicting situations and emotions immediately familiar
and credible to the readers. In wordless picture books
the depiction and development of characters completely
rely on illustrations. In picture storybooks,
illustrations can supplement characterization in the text
by showing the characters' actions and reactions to one
another or giving characters an extra fleshing out. For
example, the pictures of Renard in this book really show
how cunning he is.
3) Picture books can serve as an effective tool to stimulate
and promote reader's creativity. Illustrations are
important because it can facilitate the reader’s
understanding of the written text. In the Renard the Fox
book, all pictures provided can help the readers to
understand well what was happening in the story.
Therefore, based on the book of Renard The Fox, I can see that
the size of the book is big. The cover of the book is hard.
The paper is not too thin or too thick. It is just fine and it
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cannot be torn easily. The size of font is big, clear and
readable. The illustrations used in this book are interesting.
Some of them are colourful and there are also black and white
pictures. The illustrations in this book look realistic and
artistic. For example, we can see the fur of the fox clearly.
It was like the real one. This book also has roman-style
drawing where it was inspired from roman-era drawing.
LITERARY ELEMENTS
There are some sentences which use repetition. For example:
‘...that if I were to lie quite still and wait and wait,...’
(pg20)
‘Wake up, wife! Wake up, children!’ (pg35)
(i) “He decided to make a New Year’s resolution.”
(ii) “He decided that he wanted to live his life quite
differently from now on.” (pg37)
‘Nothing to eat,’ he moped to himself. ‘Nothing to spend,
soothing to comfort oneself with. Nothing to give to a friend
in need – if one happened to feel in the mood for giving
something to a friend.” (pg45)
‘Husband, I told you so! I told you so!’ she clucked. ‘Now look! Now look!
What’ll we do? I told you so!’ (pg57)
‘Yes, yes, yes!’ (pg65)8
‘But now I’m terribly terribly sorry.’ (pg65)
“Renard and Cat were stalking along the same road, at the same
time, and on the same day.” (pg69)
“...there’d be no peace talks, no truces, no friendship...”
(pg74)
‘I promise, promise, promise, no more tricks.’ (pg78)
Besides that, there is a sentence which uses personification
which is “As the inconvenience of hunger began to grip his
stomach more tightly, he...” (pg43 & pg44).
Hyperbole also exists in some sentences. Some examples are “So
when a small crumb of rich, yellow cheese fell through the air
and landed on the ground right by his nose, his life
immediately began to improve.” (pg59) and “heavenly gift”
(pg62), ‘Lord, if I could get my hands on you I’d shake the
living daylights out of you!’ (pg62) and ‘I wouldn’t come down
for a thousand pounds.’ (pg71).
An example of sentence that uses assonance is “And Crow, seeing
Renard weeping and moaning and ignoring the cheese, began to
be...” (pg19). There is the repetition of the /i/ vowel sound
in seeing, weeping, moaning, and ignoring.
There is a sentence that uses comparison of ‘than’, which is
‘He went faster than greased lightning.’ (pg58).
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Some sentences use the metaphor. Examples are ‘This poisonous
piece of work is called Renard.’ (pg32) and ‘You stupid old
cow!’ he yelled. ‘If you actually saw the fox with the cock in
his mouth why didn’t you get after him?’ (pg58).
There is also the literary element of simile used in the
sentences. Simile uses ‘like’ and ‘as’ to compare two
different things. Some examples are “as fit as a fiddle”
(pg19), “His tail was gripped firmly in the ice as though by
powerful teeth.” (pg28), “for what seemed like hours” (pg33),
‘I fear you’re a marked man, already as dead as makes no
difference.’ (pg59), ‘There’s not a creature on earth that’s
as smart as me.’ (pg68), “like the lights of heaven…like
singing of angels” (pg68) and ‘...you and I ought to stick
together. As comrades in arms.’ (pg69).
Some examples of imagery are “...and saw stars sparkling like the
lights of heaven, and heard strange distant noises ringing in his ears like
singing of angels.” (pg68)
Renard the Fox is actually a political or social satire. There
is a difference between a satire and also an allegory.
According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, a satire
means a piece of writing that is used as a way to criticise a
person, an idea or an institution in which you use humour to
show their faults and weaknesses. On the other hand, an
allegory means a story, play or picture in which each
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character or event is a symbol representing an idea or
quality, such as truth, evil or death.
“The Renard stories show a vigorous tradition of popular
humour commenting on behaviour of kings, scholars, and
churchmen.” (Afterword)
An example of sentences that criticise the king’s behaviour is
“His lordship was hopping mad with himself for his carelessness
in missing.” (pg28)
The sentence that comments on the behaviour of scholars who
are people knowledgeable of a particular subject because they
have studied it in details is ‘...I suggest you’d do better to
take care of your own business and don’t go around trusting it
to a fox.’ (pg31) (Said Renard to the dyer.) This actually
criticises the irresponsible behaviour of traders back then.
The next example is a sentence that criticises the trusted
people in religious communities when they actually are being
dishonest in conducting their duty. ‘What a good chap this priest
is to keep such a well-stocked church,’ said Wolf. ‘And look,
he’s left us some wine too, hidden in this chest.’ (pg9)
It uses third person omniscient point of view. The sentences
constructed use third person singular and plural pronouns.
Examples are “he” (pg8), “she” (pg2) and “they” (pg13). Some
also use the possessive determiners such as “his” (pg9), “her”
(pg3) and “their” (pg8).
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The narrator is all-knowing who can describe the characters’
emotions and feelings.
An example extracted from the text is “But Renard, who was not
as hungry as Wolf, was disgusted to see his fellow scavenger
slurping and burping in such a greedy way.” (pg9) The narrator
describes that Renard feels disgusted and Wolf feels hungry.
Another important literary element that is present in this
text is irony. Irony is the difference between what the
narrator describes in the story and what the readers believe.
There are two types of irony used. The first one is dramatic
irony, which occurs when a narrator or character perceives
less than readers do. The example extracted from the text is
“‘I’m the brightest of them all,’ thought Renard. ‘There’s not
a creature on earth that’s as smart as me.’ Or so he thought.”
(pg68). Based on this example, we can imply that Renard
actually thinks that no creature can trick him as he believes
that he is the smartest of them all.
Or so he thought. (pg68) is the foreshadowing method of plot used
by the narrator to hint that there are more surprising events
that will happen throughout the story. He envisions that what
Renard expects to happen is not what happens later.
This is another type of the irony element present in the
story, which is the verbal irony. It occurs when the narrator
says one thing using some dialogues or lines but actually it
means another. An example taken from the text is ‘Can’t trust
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a soul these days, can one?’ said Renard, trotting down the
track by Cat’s side. (pg69) Renard actually warns the Cat not
to trust anyone, including himself.
An example of symbolism found in the text is the fox’s cunning
attitude which represents human hypocrisy. “The fox’s cunning
can seem very close to human hypocrisy, so when a medieval
artist wanted to depict hypocrisy or treachery he would often
show the fox tricking one of the other animals.” (Afterword
page)
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CHARACTERIZATION IN RENARD THE FOX
Characterization is a literary device used by authors in
literary works to introduce and explain the character and
characteristics of the subject to the readers. There are two
types of characterization; direct characterization and indirect
characterization. Direct characterization is done by the author
itself in which he or she directly narrates the characteristics
of the subject to the reader. On the other hand, indirect
characterization requires the reader to read and analyze the
dialogue and actions of the subject in order to know their
characteristics. A character also can be either a dynamic
character or a static character. A static character is a
character that possess the same characteristics throughout the
story, whereas dynamic character is a character that experience
some changes or development in their character as the story
possess, usually after an important key event or the turning
point of the story.
Renard can be considered as a dynamic character, because of
his somewhat “double personality” and hypocrisy. In each story,
Renard is depicted as typical fox; cunning and a trickster. In
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the second story entitled “Renard and Wolf”, Renard encountered a
priest who is on his way to the church without realizing that he
dropped a bundle of cloth containing 100 pieces of fairy cakes.
As a normal animal would do, Renard decided to eat all but two of
the fairy cakes. After a short while, he met with wolf whom he
call his “old chap”. Renard found out that Wolf was miserable and
hungry, so he decided to give the remaining two cakes to Wolf.
When Wolf asked Fox for more fairy cakes, Renard said that he
only found two cakes. From this situation, we could see that
Renard has some hypocrisy and selfish character to him because he
hides the truth from the Wolf that he had already eaten 98 fairy
cakes. From the same example, we can say that it is an indirect
characterization because it is not directly stated by the author
that Renard is indeed selfish and hypocrite, we could have imply
about his characteristics by just reading at Renard’s action
after he met Wolf.
Another prominent characteristic about Renard is that he is
always hiding his bad intentions by being polite (by the means of
language) and religious. When he want to have something, he
always pray to God to fulfill his wishes. Ironically, he always
committed sin in order to get what he wants. For example in
“Renard Changes Colour”, Renard had tricked Wolf (who is
currently holding grudge towards Renard after being tricked in
the previous chapter causing quarter of his tail to be cut off)
again by acting up as Trotter, a foreign fox from England. Not
recognizing Renard (due to the fact that his colour has change),
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Fox treated “Trotter” with hospitality and began to talk bad
about Renard. “Trotter” who didn’t mind being badmouthed decided
to trick Wolf by asking his help to steal a guitar from a house
so that he can perform in front of king of France. Knowing that
this truce would benefit him as well, Wolf decided to steal the
guitar and gave it to “Trotter”. Trotter (as known as Renard)
then recited his prayers to God; “Dear Lord, thanks for answering
my request so faithfully”. This event clearly shows that Renard
has the ability to manipulate someone to fulfill his desires.
Elements of ironism also can be seen here where Renard actually
prays to God after committed a sin.
The next main character is Wolf. Unlike other animals in the
book, the character Wolf appeared in more than one stories. He is
a good example of a static character. In the first story “Adam,
Eve and Renard”, it is told that Renard and Wolf are the
creatures that both been summoned by Eve from the sea. Initially,
they were friends but after several generations, that friendship
began to sour. The author further introduces the character Wolf
in the second story. Unlike Renard, Wolf possesses a more natural
beastly character. We could see this when both of them decided to
sneak into the church to forage for food. When they found a
plethora of food being served on the table, Wolf immediately
gobbles down the food and gulping down some swigs of wines. He
becomes so drunk, that he caused trouble and rang the ball inside
the church. The sound of the bell triggers the attention of the
priest who then called the curate and the housekeeper. They
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believed that the church has been infiltrated and when they saw
Wolf, they began to attack him by throwing red apples towards
him. After this event, we can now see that Wolf is also a very
vengeful character. He thought that it is all Renard’s fault for
causing the trouble. He confronts with Renard when he escaped
from the church, but Renard somehow managed to justify the
situation.
THEMES
Theme is a main idea of the story. Every story has themes.
In Renard the Fox’s story, we have found three main themes.
1. The greedy and cunning fox.
This theme is more to the social context because in this
book, it shows how the fox interacts with other animals
and also human. This book really focused on the how evil
the fox is. We can see what he has done to other animals
in order to get food. The hypocrisy can be seen in the
character of Renard. For example, in the story of Renard
and the Eels, he has pretended to be dead in order to
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catch these eels. He also shows his hypocricy when he
pretended to be kind towards wolf as he asked the wolf to
get food in a church. Finally, he just left the wolf and
the wolf was hit by the people in the church. He also
lied to the crow. He told the crow that he was injured
but actually it was not. He did it because he wanted the
cheese. In my opinion, the fox itself actually symbolises
the human around us. We do have this kind of human; human
that practice hypocrisy in their life. Therefore, through
this story, it makes me realise that actually in our
lives, we need to be more careful and do not trust people
easily.
2. Religious element.
This theme is more to cultural context. In this book, we
found some religious elements .For example, in the story
of Adam, Eve and Renard, it shows that Adam and Eve was
punished by God because they cheated against God’s rules
and because of that, they were turned out of the
paradise. But, they were given a special stick. The moral
value that we get from this story is we must not do
sinful things otherwise we will be punished by God.
Another example is the story of Renard, sheep and donkey.
In this story, it shows that Renard, sheep and donkey
were going to Rome for pilgrimage. Rome is the holy land
for them. These two stories tell us that this book does
have some religious elements.
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3. Diversity of animal kingdom
This theme is more to society context. This book focused
more on the society of animals. It does have human in
this book but not too many compared to animals. All
stories show how these animals interact with each other.
In my opinion, it is suitable to be read because it lets
the readers know how our ecosystem is, and makes us
realised that this world is not only for human, but also
for animals. This book educates us to not deny the
existence of animals in the world because they also have
rights to live happily in their society like human.
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POPULARITY
For us, this book can be popular among children and
adolescence. Physical-wise, the book has artistic drawings on the
book cover and inside the stories. Interestingly, each of the
stories has different styles of drawing; from simple to complex
and intricate. The illustrations provided in the stories will
help the readers to stimulate their imagination, especially for
young children. The language is not too complex for the children
of native speakers but for our Malaysian children, they might
have a hard time to understand the story by themselves, so this
book is more suitable to be a bedtime story book. As for
adolescence, they are able to read this book by themselves,
though they might need their parents’ or teachers’ help when they
encountered some new words that they never seen before.
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As for the storyline, the plot is not too complex and
comprehensible for Malaysian children and adolescence.
Furthermore, each of the stories are related with each other and
arranged in a chronological order. This will stimulate the
reader’s curiosity to know what will happen to Renard in the next
story. For example, at the end of “Renard goes fishing”, Wolf is
determined to kill Renard after he tricked him to fish in icy
cold water, causing his tail to stuck in ice. When the huntsman
found Wolf, he accidently slashed a quarter of Wolf’s tail when
he tried to kill Wolf. Once Wolf had been freed from the ice,
Wolf begins his journey to search and kill Renard. This chapter
is followed by “Renard changes colour”. In this story, Renard
changes his colour to bright canary yellow when he accidently
fell into a vat containing yellow dye in a house. After leaving
the dyer’s house, Renard saw Wolf in a distance not too far to
him. This will create suspense among the readers, as they still
remember that Wolf will kill Renard if he ever finds him again.
However, things happen the other way. When Wolf saw Renard in his
new appearance, Wolf immediately bows to him and called him a
fabulous-looking creature, which tells us that Wolf did not
recognize Renard anymore.
Another interesting feature of this book is the religious
allusion of some of the stories to the events depicted in the
holy Bible. In “Adam, Eve and Renard”, it is told that Adam and
Eve were casted out of the heavens because they had committed
their first sin towards God. But God took pity on them. He gave a
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special stick in which they can use to summon new creatures by
hitting the sea with the stick. We can see that it has some
resemblance with the story depicted in Islam and Christian
religion, where Adam and Eve was thrown out from the heavens
because they ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.
However, the part where they summoned the animals resembles the
story of Prophet Musa A.S (Moses) in Islam, where he struck the
sea with a staff, causing the sea to split into two, allowing him
to escape from the Pharaoh.
Another religious allusion can be seen in Renard, Sheep and
Donkey. In this story, Renard is determined to repent to God for
all his wrong doings by confessing his sins to the priest, but
the priest said that Renard must confess his sins to the Pope in
Rome. Renard found a pilgrim robe and begins his pilgrimage to
Rome by himself. As the story goes, he met two other animals,
Sheep and Donkey who are in misery. Renard invites them to the
pilgrimage so that they can get out of their misery; Sheep who is
about to be slaughtered and Donkey who is tired of working for
his master. This part of the story is an allusion to the story
told in Exodus verse 17 in the Bible, where God promised his
people to take them out of their misery in Egypt by leading them
to the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Overall, this book is suitable for children and adolescence
with the condition that they must be supervised by teachers in
case they encountered a non-familiar word. As for Muslim
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audience, the first story in this book is not suitable for them
because the story told inside the book is totally different from
the teachings of Islam. Therefore, teachers and parents must
avoid themselves from telling the first story to their children.
USE IN THE MALAYSIAN ESL CLASSROOM
The text is suitable for students in secondary schools
focusing on those aged thirteen to fifteen in Malaysia. It is
a compilation of short stories therefore the children can take
a short break after completing each story before they continue
their reading. This is due to the fact that they have shorter
attention span which ranges from 45 minutes to an hour.
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Besides that, there are some qualities that make the text
appeal to the young adolescence. First, it has wonderful
illustrations. Some pictures have colours and they are highly
realistic which the students can relate to life situations.
Besides that, there is some sense of humour. An example
extracted from the text is ‘Blessed be its holy name...Sausage, sausage,
sausage. Saying the word is like a prayer. Sausage sausage. In the name of the
sausage, the sausage and holy sausage. Amen.’ (pg72). This shows the act of
Cat worshipping the sausage as if it is his God because he is
extremely hungry.
The third quality that will attract them to read it is there
are lots of events in the short stories that will keep the
children on the edge of their seats. This is most important
factor that lures us, not only the young children to read that
is the encouragement of natural curiosity.
It is also a good start for those who wish to pursue English
literature in future. This is mainly because there are lots of
important literary elements incorporated in the text.The
language used is mostly simple and suitable for children aged
nine to twelve in English countries. This is probably due to
the reason that they use English as their first language
compared to the children at their age in Malaysia who mostly
uses English either as the second or foreign language. It can
also be read to children as bedtime stories. There is a
lullaby provided in the last story, Renard and the Blue-tit.
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Goodnight. Sleep tight.
Mind the foxes don’t bite.
But if they do, take a shoe
And beat them till they’re black and blue. (pg78)
REFERENCES
Marshall, C. (2013, August 27). The Tale of the Fox - Open Culture.
Retrieved June 16, 2014, from www.openculture.com:
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/the-tale-of-the-fox.html
Marshall, C. (2013, August 27). The Tale of the Fox - Open Culture.
Retrieved June 16, 2014, from www.openculture.com:
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/the-tale-of-the-fox.html
Bodmer,G.R. (1992). Approaching the illustrated text. In G.E. Sadler(Ed.), Teaching
children's literature: Issues, pedagogy, resources (pp. 72-79). NY: The Modern
Language Association of America.
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