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Fables You Shouldn't Pay Any Attention To
Brief tales extolling the "virtues" of carelessness, greed, lying, selfishness, and other "admirable" qualities.
112 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1978
3 people are currently reading
88 people want to read
About the author
Florence Parry Heide
128 books40 followers"What do I like about writing for children? Everything," says Florence Parry Heide, the award-winning author of more than sixty children’s books, including the classic THE SHRINKING OF TREEHORN, illustrated by Edward Gorey. "I like the connection with children," the author says. "I like the connection with all kinds of book people. And I like the connection with my childhood self, which is the most of me. It is the most welcome and familiar of worlds. There miracles abound--indeed it is magical that something I might think of can be put into words, stories, ideas, and that those words end up in the heads of readers I will never meet."
Florence Parry Heide wrote SOME THINGS ARE SCARY, a humorous look at childhood bugaboos, more than thirty years ago. "I had finished another book and was in the mood to write something else," she says. "I decided to get some kindling from the garage, reached into the kindling box and--good grief!--grabbed something soft and mushy. I fled back to the house, scared to death." A brave return visit to the kindling box revealed the object of terror to be nothing more than a discarded wet sponge, but the thought remained: some things are scary. As she recalls, "What scared me as a child was that I’d never learn how to be a real grownup--and the fact is, I never did find out how it goes."
One thing Florence Parry Heide does have a good handle on is the concept of friendship, in all its humorous manifestations. THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR, a tongue-in-cheek tale cowritten with Sylvia Van Clief in 1967, pokes at the tendency of well-meaning friends to offer advice instead of help, and presents a valuable lesson about what true friendship means. "One of my many (true) sayings is ‘A new friend is around the corner of every single day,’ " the author declares. "Also true: Friendships last. And last."
Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Florence Parry Heide worked in advertising and public relations in New York City before returning to Pittsburgh during World War II. After the war, she and her husband moved to Wisconsin, where they raised five children, two of whom have cowritten critically acclaimed books with their mother. Florence Parry Heide now lives in Wisconsin.
Florence Parry Heide wrote SOME THINGS ARE SCARY, a humorous look at childhood bugaboos, more than thirty years ago. "I had finished another book and was in the mood to write something else," she says. "I decided to get some kindling from the garage, reached into the kindling box and--good grief!--grabbed something soft and mushy. I fled back to the house, scared to death." A brave return visit to the kindling box revealed the object of terror to be nothing more than a discarded wet sponge, but the thought remained: some things are scary. As she recalls, "What scared me as a child was that I’d never learn how to be a real grownup--and the fact is, I never did find out how it goes."
One thing Florence Parry Heide does have a good handle on is the concept of friendship, in all its humorous manifestations. THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR, a tongue-in-cheek tale cowritten with Sylvia Van Clief in 1967, pokes at the tendency of well-meaning friends to offer advice instead of help, and presents a valuable lesson about what true friendship means. "One of my many (true) sayings is ‘A new friend is around the corner of every single day,’ " the author declares. "Also true: Friendships last. And last."
Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Florence Parry Heide worked in advertising and public relations in New York City before returning to Pittsburgh during World War II. After the war, she and her husband moved to Wisconsin, where they raised five children, two of whom have cowritten critically acclaimed books with their mother. Florence Parry Heide now lives in Wisconsin.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 19 reviews
February 18, 2017
Ruzzier was the PERFECT choice for reillustrating this quirky, hilarious, little book.
August 30, 2017
I adore this book. I read it in a book store while my son looked around for books he wanted. This is a collection of fables where the lazy, greedy, mean, envious characters are rewarded for their short commings. It's the anti-goops. It is great. The illustrations are new for this edition, but Sergio Ruzzier and he has a style similar to Edward Gorey, when Gorey illustrated cats and other kids books things. Not dirivitive, just reminiscent.
January 16, 2018
Perfect choice for those dark little souls who would love the dreadful Dahls and most sarcastic Snickets, but aren’t quite there yet. Possibly a hit with older reluctant readers- won’t feel babyish, but close to Frog and Toad-level for decoding.
March 13, 2018
My son read this on his own then asked that I read it aloud before bedtime. He gave it a so-so rating on his homework sheet for school, which surprised me because we were laughing so hard! His reason: the kids in the story were so naughty.
September 3, 2017
Delightfully cheeky stories reissued with new illustration by Segrio Ruzzier.
June 18, 2020
The title says it all.
This is a chapter book, nine chapters about ten children. Each child misbehaves in some way, but things turn out in their favour.
This is a chapter book, nine chapters about ten children. Each child misbehaves in some way, but things turn out in their favour.
December 28, 2017
Just love this intriguing twist on traditional fables. This newly illustrated version by Sergio Ruzzier adds an element of simplicity to a classic!
April 28, 2018
Subversive "lessons" are taught in this funny little book.
September 16, 2018
Not sure I like the idea of sharing such negative characteristics with my reading group. They can come up with so many of their own. Cute read as an adult when it is really a play on words.
September 23, 2017
Heide, Florence Parry and Van Clief, Sylvia Worth Fables you Shouldn’t Pay Any Attention To, 95 pages. Atheneum (Simon), 2017 (republish from a 1978 edition). $17.
This book contains short stories that are the opposite of fables, where the animal characters learn that traditionally ‘bad’ morals such as lazy and greed, are actually helpful and lead to better outcomes. An example of this is the squirrel who won’t share, while another squirrel does. Sharing is typically a ‘good’ quality but in this case, the squirrel that shared died because she didn’t have anything to eat once winter came. Features little illustrations in green and gray scales.
As funny as this book was, I think that I would like to take a higher road in the school library. Even if there are situations in real life where it is true that it pays to be bad, I don’t want to be a part of promoting that to young students. Nor do I want their parents to read the book and think that was my intention. While it is true that there has to be negativity for a plot to work, for readers to see mistakes and outcomes, there was a certain smugness to the ‘wins’ in this book that left a sour taste.
EL(K-3) –NO. Stephanie Elementary School Librarian & Author
https://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2017...
This book contains short stories that are the opposite of fables, where the animal characters learn that traditionally ‘bad’ morals such as lazy and greed, are actually helpful and lead to better outcomes. An example of this is the squirrel who won’t share, while another squirrel does. Sharing is typically a ‘good’ quality but in this case, the squirrel that shared died because she didn’t have anything to eat once winter came. Features little illustrations in green and gray scales.
As funny as this book was, I think that I would like to take a higher road in the school library. Even if there are situations in real life where it is true that it pays to be bad, I don’t want to be a part of promoting that to young students. Nor do I want their parents to read the book and think that was my intention. While it is true that there has to be negativity for a plot to work, for readers to see mistakes and outcomes, there was a certain smugness to the ‘wins’ in this book that left a sour taste.
EL(K-3) –NO. Stephanie Elementary School Librarian & Author
https://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2017...
February 19, 2025
It was cute and funny, but I didn't rate it higher because the fact that none of the bad behavior ever had a comeuppance stuck in my craw. I know that's the point and that's what makes it funny, but I've been in customer service too long and wish everyone would get their just deserts.
November 15, 2017
it was okay not the ending for positive.
December 23, 2017
Not as funny as Tales for the Perfect Child, but there is one story that is completely hilarious and makes it worth the read.
July 28, 2022
Wonderful tales for mischievous readers
March 31, 2025
Pensavo sarebbe stato più simpatico
April 4, 2025
Cute. I picked this up hoping it would be similar to her other book, The Shrinking of Treehorn.
March 11, 2021
In each of these stories, a character is either rewarded in consequence of ignoring a traditional moral precept or punished in consequence of following one. It’s significant that the consequences are (mostly) unintentional in that they are (mostly) not foreseen by the characters, but they are natural in that the character’s action is the proximate cause of the consequence.
In some cases, the character’s flouting of the traditional moral precept seems reasonable, even praiseworthy, as in the story of Muriel the cow, who sees another farm in the distance that appears to have greener grass and windows made of diamonds. She supposes the farmer must be wealthy and imagines him giving her a diamond collar to wear. The other cows are content where they are and caution Muriel that the other farm only appears better. Muriel walks a long way to find the other farm and is rewarded by finding that the grass there is, in fact, greener and juicier, the windows actually are made of diamonds, the farmer is wealthy, and his wife indeed gives Muriel a diamond collar to wear. “It pays to be discontented,” she concludes.
In other cases, the character’s flouting of the traditional moral precept does not seem reasonable, and is only rewarded by accident, as in the case of Phoebe the lazy bee who doesn’t share in the work of making honey, and when a bear eats the honey the rest of the hive worked so hard to make, forcing them to start over again, Phoebe concludes, “I’m glad I kept putting off until tomorrow what I should have been doing all along.” Likewise with Chester the lazy turkey who was too lazy to run when the farmer called and became the only one to survive the Thanksgiving Day slaughter, and Conrad, the little duck who told his mother the truth about tracking mud on her recently-scrubbed kitchen floor, who thought “It pays to be truthful,” but, the narrator informs us, “Conrad was wrong.”
The genius of this collection is that every fable shows that moral precepts can’t be followed blindly, they have to be applied with good judgment--even if the characters themselves don't always do so.
In some cases, the character’s flouting of the traditional moral precept seems reasonable, even praiseworthy, as in the story of Muriel the cow, who sees another farm in the distance that appears to have greener grass and windows made of diamonds. She supposes the farmer must be wealthy and imagines him giving her a diamond collar to wear. The other cows are content where they are and caution Muriel that the other farm only appears better. Muriel walks a long way to find the other farm and is rewarded by finding that the grass there is, in fact, greener and juicier, the windows actually are made of diamonds, the farmer is wealthy, and his wife indeed gives Muriel a diamond collar to wear. “It pays to be discontented,” she concludes.
In other cases, the character’s flouting of the traditional moral precept does not seem reasonable, and is only rewarded by accident, as in the case of Phoebe the lazy bee who doesn’t share in the work of making honey, and when a bear eats the honey the rest of the hive worked so hard to make, forcing them to start over again, Phoebe concludes, “I’m glad I kept putting off until tomorrow what I should have been doing all along.” Likewise with Chester the lazy turkey who was too lazy to run when the farmer called and became the only one to survive the Thanksgiving Day slaughter, and Conrad, the little duck who told his mother the truth about tracking mud on her recently-scrubbed kitchen floor, who thought “It pays to be truthful,” but, the narrator informs us, “Conrad was wrong.”
The genius of this collection is that every fable shows that moral precepts can’t be followed blindly, they have to be applied with good judgment--even if the characters themselves don't always do so.
July 14, 2023
Silly and subversive fables where characters who are lazy, selfish (etc) end up triumphant. Kids (and adults) who are already familiar with the usual fables will find this book hilarious.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 19 reviews