-My name is Aesop! Once I was a slave. Now I am a free man. I have refreshments to sell and stories to tell. Stop for a moment ' and enjoy!- Bob Hartman uses all his skills as a storyteller to add humour, irony, action and clever dialogue to these new retellings of ten of Aesop's fables, which he has woven into an entertaining tale about a man who tells stories for a living. Included is a rich mix of familiar and less well-known tales selected for their relevance to the life of children today. Streetwise tricksters get their comeuppance, virtue is rewarded, and readers are shown the benefits of good behaviour - but with the Hartman touch these stories are far from being the typical moral tale. Animated, witty and characterful illustrations echo the flavour of the text.