The Hare and the Tortoise retold and illustrated by Helen Ward*

I love the beautiful illustrations in this book and her word choice surprises me in this slightly sparse retelling (great words she uses: hurtled, havoc, tumbled, unbiased, plodded, peculiar ---just to name a few).
Ms. Ward's alternations to the original fable are clever and entertaining (the reason for the start of the race, the race course/obstacles, how the hare is tricked).
A couple pages at the end reveal the actual names of the unique, beautiful animals in the illustrations and facts about the animals.
**Highly, highly recommend.
Strategies: vocab. expansion, inferring
*Borrowed from the library.