The Lion And The Unicorn [Hardcover]

Shirley Hughes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 1999 | Age Level: 5 and up

A handsome, thoughtful book by a stellar author and illustrator.

When Lenny Levi's father goes off to fight in the Second World War, his son has to learn to be brave: brave when bombs are dropped on his street in London, brave when he's evacuated to a big house in the country, and brave when spiteful children tease him and call him names. This beautiful book will strike a chord with anyone who has ever felt homesick and alone. Full of detail and character, it embraces the past and the preset with unique poignancy and power.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's hard to be brave. Lenny has been trying ever since his father went off to fight in World War II, leaving him with a medallion depicting a fighting unicorn and lion. When bombs start to drop all around his house in London, his mother puts him on a train to the country for safety. There, mean children make fun of him and, well, being brave seems almost impossible. Thankfully, Lenny discovers a safe haven, a walled garden with a lonely looking stone unicorn, and he retreats there often. When he meets a quiet one-legged young man in the garden one day, Lenny slowly begins to learn the deeper meaning of courage. Once again, Shirley Hughes displays an unwavering sense of character, and beautifully colored, soft illustrations place the narrative in its physical and emotional context. Her sensitivity to the nuances of feelings in young people makes her stories profoundly appealing and satisfying. In this story of fear and loneliness, she brings the experiences of a time gone by into the present with clarity, wisdom, and elegance. (Ages 8 to 12) --Emilie Coulter

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 4-An offering that is remarkable on many counts. It is, first and foremost, a moving story of a Jewish boy who comes to understand the nuances of bravery when he leaves his mother and their London home and goes to the countryside during the Blitz. Much of the impact comes from the author's effective use of foreshadowing, personification, and symbol in relation to the lion and the unicorn. The animals are introduced on a medal given to the boy by his father before he went off to war, with the admonition to be brave. The ferocious lion is linked to tangible sources of fear. Lenny discovers a statue of a unicorn in a walled garden where he has been sent to live. It is here that he also meets a young war hero with an amputated leg and discovers another side of strength-and of bravery. Hughes masterfully blends the real and the mythical in an enormously satisfying climax. Paintings of different sizes face text framed with black pen-and-ink lines and sketches. The gray, green, and blue background palette unifies the war and garden scenes, but the former is punctuated with the orange of flames, the latter with magenta flowers and warm, yellow sunlight. Place this in the ranks of other titles in which the garden and the friendships that develop there are a source of solace and inner strength.
Wendy Lukehart, Dauphin County Library, Harrisburg, PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: DK CHILDREN (March 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789425556
• ISBN-13: 978-0789425553
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,485,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Poignant and Heartbreaking, March 5, 2003

By 

R. M. Fisher "Raye" (New Zealand = Middle Earth!) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Lion And The Unicorn (Hardcover)

Shirley Hughes is best known for her famous 'Alfie' books in which she takes ordinary urban life, and through her warm prose and beautiful illustrations, changes it into something magical. In 'The Lion and the Unicorn' she goes in a slightly different direction, making a slightly older boy her protagonist, setting it against a backdrop of World War Two, and having her narrative flow along to heighten all of Lenny's experiences of fear and anxiety in the war rather than pinpoint one particular event or circumstance. Although the book is not specific about how much time it emcompasses, one could easily imagine that it takes place over several years.

Lenny is a young boy living in war-time London, where the nights are regularly filled with the sounds of bombs and airplanes. His father is already at the war, sending him letters filled with pictures (one in particular has a pencil-drawn unicorn) and leaving him as the keeper of a medallion with a fighting lion and unicorn upon it. When a home nearby is destroyed, Lenny's mother takes him to the train station to be evacuted, leading to a confused and heartbreaking separation. Lenny is taken to a large old house in the country (and Hughes's illustrations magnifiently capture its grandeur and beauty by day and its gloominess and vastness by night) where he is faced with sleeping by himself in a strange room, being bullied by children at school because of his bedwetting, and his refusal to eat bacon/pork as served by the head maid.

From here things move both up and down. His bed wetting (with help from a kindly young maid) improves, only to get worse when letters from his mother stop coming. The taunts at school intensify, and the other girls at the house are malicious. Only one thing seems to give him any comfit - the discovery of a walled garden (and here Hughes's love of the Secret Garden [she has illustrated an edition], shines through) with the graceful statue of a unicorn inside. There he also meets a strange and quiet one-legged man who speaks to him about the deeper meanings of courage, and how one is able to grasp it.

The two images of the lion and the unicorn are prevailent throughout the book, in a way they symbolise the battle between fear and bravery, but also the two *types* of bravery: the lion as the raging courage soldiers must have as they go into battle, the unicorn as the more passive, quiet courage that Lenny is desparately trying to achieve.

Shirley Hughes once more delievers a beautiful and poignant book (though many may not be used to anything but her Alfie collection) that captures the intensity and real fear that children possess, and the difficult circumstances in which courage was won. Younger children may be a little confused at the winding pace and style of the story (they expect a clear-cut beginning, middle and ending resolution), but Hughes's illustrations successfully bring the life and times of the second World War to today, nostalgically and relevently.