Illustrated in full color. Beloved storyteller Verna Aardema is at her finest in this African animal tale, weaving charm and suspense with a delightfully satisfying resolution. Peering down from her treetop perch, a lonely lioness admires the noisily cheeping clan of Mother Ostrich and thinks, "I would be happy to have just one child." So she leaps down, gurum! and steals all four ostrich chicks. Accepting the lioness as their mother, the chicks follow right behind he. Mother Ostrich is frantic! As she chases after the lioness, she enlists the help of gazelle, hyena, jackal, and mongoose. But which one can help her to get her chicks back? With art by Yumi Heo that blends primitive, African, and folk styles, The Lonely Lioness and the Ostrich Chicks is a captivating picture book destined to be a classic.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Salvaged from Aardema's out-of-print Tales for the Third Ear, this Masai tale shines as a standalone offering, thanks partly to Heo's (The Green Frogs) fresh, invigorating oil and pencil illustrations. A cubless, lonely lioness snatches four chicks from a mother ostrich. The distraught mother seeks help from a gazelle, hyena, jackal and finally a mongoose, who tricks the lioness into turning away from the chicks long enough for the ostrich mother to take them back. Aardema's use of crisp dialogue and Masai sound effects (a purr is "irtil-irtil") creates fertile ground for enthusiastic storytelling. Heo's unique style brings a great energy, too. Almost hieroglyphic in their eschewal of perspective, her paintings are a pastiche of likable animal characters and seemingly tornado-tossed details splattered across a stylishly distressed background. This pairing of talents is ideal for such a frolicsome tale. Ages 3-8.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 3-When a solitary lioness decides to capture one of Mother Ostrich's chicks to keep her company, she gets more than she bargained for and ends up with all four chicks in her care. Despite their mother's pleas for their return, the little ones seem contented to follow along behind the kind and doting big cat. The distraught Mother Ostrich tries to enlist the help of first a gazelle, then a hyena, a jackal, and finally a mongoose. While the other creatures are fearful of the lioness and tread softly around her, the brazen mongoose taunts her and gets her to chase him, thus allowing Mother Ostrich to reclaim her youngsters and walk them home, "tuk-pik, tuk-pik, tuk-pik." This traditional tale of cleverness winning out over strength is retold in an understated but satisfying manner. Heo's enormously appealing, stylized artwork captures the expansiveness and colors of the sun-drenched veld and offers unusual perspectives of the animal characters, rendered in expressive cartoon style. The docile, smiling lioness shows her true colors when the mongoose insults her. Children will delight in this well-told story and will come away with the feeling that all's right with the world. A natural for reading aloud and sharing with a group.
Luann Toth, School Library Journal
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Luann Toth, School Library Journal
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The story of a mother's unwavering devotion,
By
This review is from: The Lonely Lioness and the Ostrich Chicks (Stepping Stone Books) (Hardcover)
This story of a mother ostrich and her baby chicks will tug at your heartstrings. A lioness, who is without children of her own, steals baby chicks from a mother ostrich. The mother ostrich persists in trying to reason with the lioness to give her chicks back. Along the way she solicits the help of other creatures, until finally she finds one animal friend who helps outwit the lioness. In the end the mother and her chicks are reunited. This story, with its artistic and creative illustrations teaches a multitude of life lessons to young children as they learn of the mother ostrich's unwavering devotion to her baby chicks.~DeeDee Fox, Author of The Ruby Red Slippers
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Lonely Lioness and the Ostrich Chicks (Hardcover)
I brought this book on a recent visit to my nieces and they loved it. We reread it many times during my visit, enjoying the beautiful illustrations of african animals.
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