This story for young readers uses rhyme, illustration, and inset speeches to deliver a comic version of Aesop’s fable, The Grasshopper and the Ants. It is told in iambic tetrameter, and opens with a brief explanation of who Aesop was, showing an image of him sitting on a log talking to a group of girls and boys, then explaining: "This fable warns you not to shirk/ while other people do the work!" (p. 5).

The fable begins, setting the scene, showing the ants working, and Jim, the grasshopper, idling. As the ants work, the grasshopper, described as a "dozing hippy", sings a song: "do-be-do-be-do-be-do/ why d’you find so much to do?" (p. 9). As the ants carry on working, the grasshopper notes other creatures working – a pair of snails (pp. 11–13), butterflies and bees (pp. 14–15), a dung-beetle (p. 17). The ants chant as they work: "We’ll toil and work for all our clan/ following the Big Ant Plan./ We’ll help each other to survive/ and gather food to stay alive!" (p. 19) An ant named Antonia strikes up conversation with Jim, the grasshopper, explaining again that autumn is coming (p. 25). And so autumn comes, the sun is less bright, the leaves disappear, the creatures who have been preparing are ready with their stocks. "Except for Jim, all alone./ He had no food – no winter home" (p. 29). Jim struggles through the seasons, the wind is cold, there is no food left, and when snow comes, he knows what he has to do, and throws himself on the mercy of the ants. Antonia asks the ants to help him. The Queen ant points out that "we worked hard while he was lazy,/ then he dared to call us crazy!" (p. 39). Antonia pleads with the Queen, and offers Jim’s music as a trade. The ants eagerly agree, "although we’ve tons of food and rooms,/ it’s dull down here without his tunes" (p. 41). Jim plays, and sings and apology, and the queen allows him to stay. The story finishes with Jim singing the mora: "Ants are really very wise/ to think ahead to store supplies." (p. 47).

This straightforward retelling of Aesop’s famous fable, uses comic techniques to drive home its morals. The use of iambic tetrameter provides a lively, forward-driving story. Each page intersperses plain text narrative with dialogue in speech-bubbles coming from the mouths of the illustrated figures, breaking up the text visually and allowing young readers to understand the difference between narrative and speech. The illustrations show cute, anthropomorphic creatures, drawing the line between the working rhythms of nature, and ideas about human behaviour. Jim’s characterisation as a ‘dozing hippy’ suggests a some what conservative take on the grasshopper, in contrast with the solid, bourgeois character of the ants, who have a rigid hierarchy as well as a strong work ethic. The story’s didacticism is highlighted and reinforced, with the emphasis laid on hard work and foresight. No comment is made about the trade between Jim’s musical talent and the ants’ food, though young readers may well be able to glean that all work and no play is dull, even if it comes with food and shelter.