“We love the fables of La Fontaine!
Could we imagine a game
So that children and grown ups could play with them?”
There are many reasons to love the fables of La Fontaine; because they are beautiful, because they look like pretty songs, because they are full of malicious animals and, above all, because they let us share old memories with our kids. Discover once again those little treasures of literature, pure poetry with few words, that inspired Mon Petit Art to create a game!
Here is our poet. Can you see his malicious smile ? What is our poet thinking ? Maybe inventing another story? We all know his famous fables. Those short poems aim at giving a pragmatic moral. The protagonists of those little stories are all animals. Pupils learn them by heart at school, some students analyze them at the University and many actors recite them on stage; they are a big part of our imaginary. And, if you had forgotten them, maybe you will have to remind those verse with the school homework of your kids! Nevertheless, those poems are not so young; more than 400 years old! But they still very popular. Why that? First, children love them; the first book of La Fontaine was indeed dedicated to a child (nothing less the King’s Dauphin!). But all of us grow ups that once, were kids, also enjoy them.
The fables of La Fontaine are ageless, and their message still have a great impact today. How to explain kids such things as humility? Empathy ? Patience ? At Mon Petit Art, we read the fables once again, and it gave us the idea to create a game for kids and adults to play around this great work of literature. A game both for young kids, to discover the poems, and for grow-ups, to tell and remember these stories. There is no better way to learn than playing! Playing with the fables of La Fontaine is like obeying to his definition of his own poems: to educate… and to entertain! In this idea, we created a game with artists Georges et Rosalie. Their illustrations are a modern and esthetic interpretation of La Fontaine’s world, with shiny colors and elegant patterns. A flower crown for the turtle, a dandy hat for the little fox… characters come to life and kids can imagine their own adventures!
This classic games typical of family afternoon has very simple rules. The 40 cards are lied, face down, on the table or on the floor. Each player can flip two cards at a time, for a few seconds, so that everyone can see it. The purpose of the game is to find all pairs of similar cards, only remembering their position. In the Memo La Fontaine, each card is associated with a different poem. Here are one of the cards, with some extracts from the texts. Can you guess what fables are they? Your turn to play with the fables of La Fontaine !
“ Learn, my good fellow, that the flattering crew
Live at the cost of those they slyly please ;
I hope my lesson's worth your cheese. ”
Slow but steady wins the race.
The gay cicada, full of song
All the sunny season long
Herself no bigger than an egg ;
She laboured, stretched, began to swell
We prize the beautiful, the good despise,
While in the former oft our ruin lies
Please, spare me; let me grow. You'll catch me later
And sell me to some tax administrator