Nick Klaus’s Fables
by Frederic Colier
Nick Klaus’s Fables
by Frederic Colier
Book Case Engine, New York, NY
Nick Klaus’s Fables Copyright © 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 by Frederic Colier
Library of Congress Number:
ISBN: Softcover 978-1-62848-Pending
ISBN: MOBI 978-1-62848-022-1
ISBN: EPUB 978-1-62848-023-8
All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio or television reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Caution: professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that all materials in this book, being fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America, the British Empire, including the Dominion of Canada, and all other countries of the Berne and Universal Copyright Convention, is subject to royalty. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio and television broadcasting, and the rights of translations into foreign languages, are strictly reserved. The rights for this edition are controlled exclusively by Book Case Engine. Inquiries concerning all the rights delineated above should be addressed to Book Case Engine, New York. www.bookcaseengine.com
Cover Design: by the author
Photograph: Wood Menagerie © 2011 Frederic Colier
File under: Middle Grade Fiction / Fables, Mythology, Fairy Tales.
To Juliet, Gretchen and Nancy
Fiction for Middle Grade – Young Adult
Nick Klaus et le Paysage Désuet (novel, French) Book #1-4
Nick Klaus’s Fables (collection of fables) Book #5
Nick Klaus and the Room of Lost Footsteps (novel) Book #6
Nick Klaus and the Incurable Jumblelium (novel) Book #7
Coming soon:
Nick Klaus and the Island of Stubborn Broken Dreams (novel) Book #8
Jodie Baert and the Curse of Ladon (novel) Book #1
As well as our sites www.NickKlaus.com and www.jodiebaert.com
09-10-16, 40 Fables
Note to the Readers:
The first volume, in English, of the Nick Klaus’s adventures, “Nick Klaus and the Room of the Lost Footsteps” (book #6) is now available. You can download it from any of the online retailers. “Nick Klaus and the Room of the Lost Footsteps” will be followed by “Nick Klaus and the Incurable Jumblelium” (book #7) and “Nick Klaus and the Island of Stubborn Broken Dreams,” (book #8) after that.
In the meantime, I want you to enjoy “Nick Klaus’s Fables” (Book #5), a collection of fables, free of charge (for the moment at least). I hope that they will inspire you to check out the other books in the series, and even perhaps, if I may indulge in complete fantasy, in showing your support by leaving a review on your retailer’s site . . . My wishes have been formulated.
There is very much a traditionalist in me who would like to seize this opportunity to restore an old publishing tradition. I’m not much of a device reader, but I know lots of you are, though I can enjoy their benefits. The most inspiring aspect of this new technology consists of the endless possibility for revisions and additions. Charles Dickens used to publish his novels in serialization in newspapers, delivering a chapter a week over the course of months, building thus an enormous interest and momentum in his material, whetting the appetite of his readership to such the point that his devoted audience could not wait to grab the following-week newspaper just to learn about the unraveling of the plot and the fate of its characters. I’m not Charles Dickens (you may have noticed, we have different names), but I sure love the idea of reintroducing a slow-drip process to the release of my materials.
Consequently, rather than, as first announced, adding blocks of five to ten fables to bring this volume to term over a brief period, I have decided to release those fables only one at a time, one every Sunday evening, or when time allows it. You will find in the top left corner the date of the most current update as well the total number of fables included in the “Nick Klaus’s Fables.”
For the moment, I am offering these fables as a sounding board in the hope of keeping on hearing your reaction and getting your feedback. Read them to your kid(s) before bedtime or with your family around the kitchen table, or later the same night in front of the fireplace. Like all fables, those pieces are short and can be read under five minutes. Preferably they should be read in groups. To this end, and in order to make the task more inviting to your coaxing guests, I set up the book like a game. In this game, you have to come up with your own moral. At the end of each fable, you will be asked, although it is not written, to find the lesson you think the characters should learn or should have learned. Don’t be fooled. It is not an easy task. I am always amazed at how many different opinions and responses people can come up with around a single table. Just imagine if we were in a restaurant. The possibilities could feed everyone over ten times. And the noise they make can be pretty loud.
By my own experience, I have witnessed on many occasions heated debates. When it was not the children disagreeing with each other, most often were the parents. You have been warned. Do not think for a second that reading fables is a passive and easy hobby. It requires lots of concentration, respect, fairness, judgment, decision, and of course patience, especially when others, in your opinion, speak nonsense.
My goal, however, is not to stir trouble: see children storm out of the room, friendships end or divorce take place, but rather to generate a dialogue. I will not abandon you and rejoice at watching cities go down in flames. This is why the morals (what I think the fables meant when I wrote them) are grouped at the end of the book in a separate heading. When in doubt or confused consult them. There will be plenty more opportunities to prove your rightness and exhibit your great sense of moral later to the world later.
The volume is not complete. My goal is to bring the entire number of fables to fifty, though I will retain the right to bring it to one hundred if inspiration has not abandoned me completely on the way there. Be that as it may, it is guaranteed to entertain you, your friends and family, for a while. Long enough anyway until a general consensus arises and prevails. I have been told that it does happen. Though I have to admit if it does come knocking on your door, I could not tell you what it looks like . . .
Let me know about your children and your family members’ reactions. You can reach me via email at Feedback. Thank you for your time and thoughts.
Frederic Colier
Table of Contents
Foreword
The Fabulist’s Fable (#1)
The Girl and the Tree (#2)
The Lion and The Monkey (#3)
The Dog Too Close To The Ground (#4)
The Boots and The Stairs (#5)
Two Fleas on a Rainy Day (#6)
The Big Plastic Day (#7)
A Pony Tale (#8)
The Front Tooth’s Journey (#9)
When We Grow Up (#10)
Martians in Times Square (#11)
The Girl, the Echo, and the Trampoline (#12)
Two Crabs in a Boxing Ring (#13)
A Conch Shell Goes To The Courthouse (#14)
A Toad in the Snakes’ Bathroom (#15)
The Plough Horseplay (#16)
Blueberry Dads (#17)
Worm Pumpkin Pie (#18)
The Monkey and the Donkey (#19)
The Horse with Three legs (#20)
The Lost Little Girl (#21)
Doorman Bear (#22)
Three Elephants on Tricycles (#23)
The Prophet and the Snails (#24)
The Wolf Must Run to the Market (#25)
A Shark in a Tank (#26)
The Joyous Shoal of Fish (#27)
The Rat Who Knew Better (#28)
The Satellite and the Stars (#29)
The Peacock and the Swan (#30)
The Goldfish in the Fishbowl (#31)
The Tree in the Forest (#32)
The Anonymous Tree (#33)
The Wary Sandbox (#34)
The Turtle and the Goose (#35)
The Slug and the Flying Newspaper (#36)
The Grain of Sand and the Oyster (#37)
The Squirrel and the Gazelle (#38)
The Monkey and the Library (#39)
The Bee and the Fly (#40)
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The Morals
Other Titles by Same Author
About the Author
Connect with the Author
Foreword
I first met Nick Klaus in 1993. Back then he was already a strapping boy of maybe 9 or 10 years of age, full of life and smiles, eager to learn and satisfy his endless curiosity. But he was also terribly mischievous and, as a result, had gotten himself into a tricky situation. From what I understand, he had managed to get stuck inside a photo album, where, to free himself, he had to discover the Outmoded Landscape, where the children of