When Ella's mother comes home with the new baby, a lion slips in the door. Only Ella can save her baby brother from this meddlesome beast.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Jealousy takes the shape of a belligerent lion in Cottringer's first picture book. Ella, the sister of newborn baby Jasper, watches from a safe distance as a lion pushes Jasper out of his crib and chews a teddy bear "into little wet bits." Ella sternly scolds the beast for its misbehavior, but its temper soon flares again. Meanwhile, Ella's parents seem not to hear the animal's roars, indirectly showing that the attention-craving girl and lion are one and the same. Along the same lines as Helen Cooper's recent, similarly themed Little Monster Did It, text and art never admit that the lion is imaginary, and the story ends as sibling rivalry is dampened but not entirely extinguished. After the older sister rescues her little brother from danger, she finds that she likes him; consequently, "the lion slipped out just as he had come in. But from time to time Ella heard a little growl at the door." Ayto (Lazy Jack) draws all the characters, including the prankish lion, in imprecise squiggles of ink. The loose outlines, combined with grainy watercolor washes of rust, muted yellow and lichen-green, lend a stuffed-animal softness to the imagery. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 1-When Ella's mother comes home with the new baby, a naughty lion appears in the house for the first time. It picks on Jasper, shoves him out of his crib, tears up his teddy bear, and knocks him around in his bath. Ella disapproves, but is helpless to stop the animal's bad behavior until a fateful moment when the lion bumps the infant's pram down the stairs with possibly disastrous consequences, and Ella steps in to save the day. Her parents are generous with grateful praise, and though the lion is occasionally heard to growl after that, his power is broken. Cottringer's story describes a classic case of Freudian defense against stress, specifically projection. Ella's unacceptable impulses toward the new baby are attributed not to her, but to the lion. She herself is shocked and dismayed at the lion's naughtiness, just as we all are dismayed at certain feelings we'd rather not have. But Ella shows readers that they can master those negative impulses when she does so herself. Large-scale cartoon figures in soft colors make this one easy to use in story time. It compares favorably to Kevin Henkes's Julius, the Baby of the World (Greenwillow, 1990), Eloise Greenfield and John Steptoe's She Come Bringin' Me That Little Baby Girl (HarperCollins, 1974), and many other titles that deal with the arrival of a new family member.
Ruth Semrau, formerly at Lovejoy School, Allen, TX
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Ruth Semrau, formerly at Lovejoy School, Allen, TX
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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