SOME children's books you never forget. You read them again and again at that age when your mind is just forming, and they become part of who you are.

For any child lucky enough to be given a copy of Helen Ward's retelling of Aesop's Fables, this could be one of them.

The fables are old hat and moralising but in Helen's retelling they take on a sparky new edge which makes them seem fresh again.

So the hare in the hare and the tortoise fable boasts he is the "master of being faster", while the other animals like nothing better than "discussing the small size of the hare's brain, and where he kept it while he was hurtling about, and how long it would take a crocodile to eat him if he accidentally ran into the river, and whether or not anyone would try to rescue him."

Great fun. What really makes this book stand out is its sheer beauty.

Helen Ward also happens to be an award-winning illustrator, and she has lovingly illustrated the dozen tales in this magnificent book with brand-new watercolours, each one a work of art in its own right.

Thus, in Sour Grapes, a fox stands on the ground looking balefully up at a luscious bunch of purple grapes just out of his reach; in All Dressed Up a jackdaw prances about in a beautiful shimmering rainbow garment of other birds' feathers; and in A Time To Dance, a beautifully-drawn cricket sits perched on a swaying stalk of wheat.

Each painting is lovingly reproduced on large, creamy pages that give off the delicious scent of quality paper. In fact, everything about this book is beautiful.

A true work of art, to be treasured.

Updated: 09:19 Wednesday, August 04, 2004