From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-Joseph, a young boy who lives in the African Savannah, hears a lion roar and decides that it's time for him to meet it, despite his father's belief that he is too young. As he spends time with the Lion, who is able to talk, the boy relishes the animal's company and watches his young cubs play. When traders come to the village, Joseph fears for the cubs' safety and suspects his father of betraying them. However, his father, too, once played with and learned from the lions and he hides the cubs in earthen pots. The father and son are happily reconciled, while the Lion looks on. The idea of a boy and an animal becoming friends has merit, and yet readers' ability to accept the friendship is undermined by the Lion's excessively metaphorical presentation. Also, the illustrations sometimes show the animal as part of the land itself, the two flowing together in natural harmony. Combine all of this with the practical improbability of hiding lion cubs in pottery and the result is a book with disparate desires: to make the lion both concrete and symbolic. Still, this ambitious text coupled with smooth, sand-washed watercolors will move readers with its raw emotion.
Martha Topol, Traverse Area District Library, Traverse City, MICopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Ages 4^-8. With stunning watercolor paintings of the east African savanna, this picture book tells an elemental story of a boy and his father and their connection with the wild. It begins with excitement: while the village sleeps, Joseph hears the ROAR of the lion like a thunderclap in the night. Joseph wants to meet the lion, but his father says it isn't time yet. The next day, Joseph sees the lion racing toward him like a glittering sun, and he and the powerful animal make friends. They rest together every noon, and the lion keeps Joseph safe. Then the traders come, and Joseph is scared that his father has betrayed the lion and sold the lion cubs; instead, Joseph discovers that his father has hidden the cubs to save them, just as the lion kept Joseph safe. What's more, his father admits that he was wrong: it
is time for Joseph to meet the lion. The final scene is a stirring climax: a close-up embrace of the father and son, with the great lion a part of their love, against the dark sky and the rolling hills. With none of the stiffness of folk art, these pictures have a sense of contemporary village life rooted in the natural world.
Hazel Rochman
