The Time of the Lion - Hardcover

Caroline Pitcher's story Kevin the Blue won the Independent Story of the Year Award in 1993. Caroline's first book for Frances Lincoln was The Snow Whale with Jackie Morris, chosen as one of Child Education's Best Books of 1996 and shortlisted for the 1997 Children's Book Award. Jackie Morris lives in Pembrokeshire, Wales, with children, dogs and cats. Ever since leaving college, Bath Academy of Art, at least one cat has watched over her while she works. Big cats and small are a passion in her life, and it was while reading and watching her cat Pixie sleeping in winter that the idea for I am Cat came about. Among her many books for Frances Lincoln are The Ice Bear, The Snow Leopard, Tell me a Dragon, and How the Whale Became by Ted Hughes. To visit Jackie's website click here

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, MI
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.