The Lion & the Mouse
by Jerry Pinkney
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Book Reviews of The Lion & the Mouse
Book Review: Outstanding in every way!!
Summary: 5 Stars
As a child this was one of my favorite stories as it was inside the schoolbook reader titled "Storyland Favorites" dated 1961 which had colorful pictures and simple text to explain the story. Because of this memory I already knew this story well. (For those who prefer this story with words I would suggest looking for a used copy of this old schoolbook on ebay or abebooks)
This book is an absoulute TREASURE! Santa brought this for our 3 year old son (38 months) and although we didn't get to it Christmas day (too busy playing with toys!) I decided to pick it up and read it to him today and once I did, there was no going back lol He insisted I read it to him no less than about 8 times today! And he apparently has a VERY good memory because if I read it "differently" in subsequent retellings, he would insist that wasn't right and so I had to try again without leaving out the parts I might have said last time! lol
For US, this was a book of MANY words, and it took us about 8 or 10 minutes each time to read the whole book! (and we sat through 5 readings in a row before nap and several more later that evening!) I love how many pages there are and how many things there are to talk about in each of the pictures! It is a delight to read and to re-read and I can see that this is going to become one of our favorites.
We talk about how the mouse doesn't see the owl but he hears the owl (whooo-whooo) and decides to run into the hole because owls eat mice and he knows the owl is close by. He gets away just in time and when he comes out on the other side he looks around but doesn't see or hear the owl because the owl flew away back home. The mouse decides to take a little rest on the grass because he is out of breath from running so fast from the owl but the mouse doesn't realize he isn't on grass it is actually the lions tail which is the same color. Then he climbs up on the lions back and the lion snatches him up and says he will eat the mouse! The mouse cries out "please don't eat me Mr Lion, if you let me go, I will help you some day" The lion laughs in a deep voice, "How can you help me? You are little, I am big; you can't help me" but he lets the mouse go because he is a good lion... I could go on, but these are just some of the things we talked about in the first part of the book.
I feel this book just couldn't have been done any better. I give it 5 stars but wish I could give 10. Its the only book I believe I have EVER read that didnt' have ANY words (well, there are a few here and there.. a roar or a squeak or a whoo- whoo from the owl) and I discovered (at age 38) how much fun a picture book can be. I'll be searching for more out there but I'm doubting there could be any that could trump this one (feel free to send me any suggestions!)
I would suggest that the storyteller already be familiar with the story before purchasing so you are not at a loss for words when it comes time to read the story to your child, although to be honest the pictures are really self-explanatory and probably could be figured out anyway! My 3 year old was totally enthralled with the story and each of the pages! The expression on the faces of the animals is just priceless! We loved it and will be returning to it many times in the future. I wish I could hug the artist for giving us such a wonderful opportunity for spending great quality time together! I had read some reviews before purchasing and am delighted that it has met and exceeded my expectations.
Book Review: One of the best books I've run across so far this year.
Summary: 4 Stars
Jerry Pinkney, The Lion and the Mouse (Little, Brown, 2009)
Between the time I read this book (if "read" is the operative term for a wordless piece of art) and the time I'm writing this review two days later, The Lion and the Mouse won the 2010 Caldecott Medal. How's that for timing? I'm not sure I can heap any more praise upon the book than that, but I'll certainly try; the highest compliment I can think to pay it is that, while I was reading Pinkney's afterword and he talked about his house butting up against a nature preserve, it never occurred to me until I read the "About the Author" block that Jerry Pinkney does not, in fact, live near the Serengeti.
The Lion and the Mouse, a retelling of the Aesop's fable set in Africa, is propelled along by ambient sound; the calls of various creatures, the snick of the hunter's trap, the chewing of mouse teeth. There is no narration; everything takes place in the pictures. It's a silent film, as it were, and as all silent films, it turns on the visuals. Pinkney's paintings (I assume they're watercolors from the way the brushstrokes look) are stunning. This is artwork that blows the viewer away, stuff that could probably hang in pretty good midsize galleries and sell for a pretty sum. But for all that my adult eyes appreciate the fact that Jerry Pinkney paints a hell of a picture, you have to look at a book like this through the eyes of the child you once were, and focus on the things that kids (we think, anyway) are attracted to; contrasts in color, the action suggested by the picture, the story that the pictures tell when you put them in the proper sequence. The last of these one doesn't have to worry about; Aesop's fables have survived for centuries for a reason. Pinkney's color palette is a marvel of mostly earth tones (this is, after all, the great savannah), which makes the mouse's soft greys pop all the more, in keeping with Pinkney's afterword (the relative sizes of the lion on the book's front cover and the mouse on the book's back cover, he tells us, are anything but coincidental). This isn't a guy who set out to tell a story and then used whatever was at hand to do so; this is a guy who understands the convention I so often talk about, that the how of telling the story is as important as the story itself. Pinkney succeeds marvelously, and while actually shelling out the cash for the book is probably best left to those with young children, I think readers of all ages should at least page through it at their local libraries. Think of it as an art book, if that makes you feel less guilty about reading kidlit, for art it truly is. ****
Book Review: Richie's Picks: THE LION AND THE MOUSE
Summary: 5 Stars
"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." -- Aesop
THE LION AND THE MOUSE is an unusual picture book because Jerry Pinkney -- inspired by living next to a nature preserve with its "vast medley of sounds" -- has retold the beloved Aesop tale of the lion and the mouse wordlessly through his pencil and watercolor illustrations, but has then included in those illustrations the sounds of the lion, the mouse, the poacher's jeep, and the owl (who sets the story in motion by scaring mama mouse who, in turn, runs up the lion's camouflaged back and is caught).
In Pinkney's pictorial retelling, it appears a random act of kindness when the lion leaves mama mouse unscathed and she scurries home to her teensy mouse babies.
Mama mouse is a real show-stealer. Rather than one or two illustrations of the mouse freeing the lion from the poacher's thick-rope trap, we are treated to a fifteen-frame superhero-like action sequence through which mama mouse sits up and sniffs, sensing what has taken place, scurries over and stands (on the rope) eye to eye with the entangled lion, and then "scratch scratch" proceeds to methodically leap from section to section and chew open the ropes. As the lion is freed and is falling to the ground, landing on his back, mama mouse almost appears to be giving him a subtle thumbs-up. The pair then pause and look at one another, before mama mouse grabs up a clump of knotted rope and scurries home, dragging the rope knot along, clearly to become both a plaything and a teaching tool for her young ones who, we can imagine, might someday participate in their own lion-and-mouse tale.
Jerry Pinkney sets THE LION AND THE MOUSE, as he explains, "...in the African Serengeti of Tanzania and Kenya, with its wide horizon and abundant wildlife so awesome yet fragile..." In the course of the story readers are treated to glimpses of everything from small ants and dragonflies to grand elephants and giraffes. (Be sure to check out the cover which has paintings which are entirely different from the images on the dust jacket.)
THE LION AND THE MOUSE is a truly distinguished picture book which one can literally stare at for hours -- as I can tell you from recent experience.
Book Review: Wordless wonder!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a lovely, vivid reimaging of the classic fable The Lion and the Mouse. Even if you don't know the story, the pictures will elucidate it wonderfully for you - which of course will allow your small child to understand it without your help.
Some people object to wordless picture books on principle, because they are unfamiliar with them. This is what I have to say to that:
Wordless picture books are PERFECT for pre-readers. It gives them the ability to read a book - REALLY own the experience instead of just "playing" as they must do when they can't understand the words - on their own. It gives them practice in putting together stories and working out details from context. And it allows them to be the expert at some activity that is usually restricted to adults and older children in their life - reading a book.
By that same token, they are also ideal for early readers. It's non-threatening, and yet it's still a way to practice following a storyline. Reading is more than just mechanically putting together sounds and reciting them, after all. Many people are impressed by a five year old who can say, word-perfect, some complex piece he or she "reads" from a page, but later they find out that the child has no idea what they just read and wasn't thinking of reading as an exercise in gleaning meaning from text, but merely as reciting memorized sounds and letter combinations. Working out the story for themselves from a book with no words is a wonderful way to practice this sort of "reading for meaning".
But what of the child who stumbles in reading? Well, the child who stumbles when reading but can tell you WHAT they read is light-years ahead of the one who sounds pretty but doesn't grasp the meaning. At any rate, this child is still getting much needed practice in the conventions of reading without the letters to stress and trip them up.
Of course, you don't want the only book in your house to be a wordless picture book, I understand that, because children do need print to practice reading, but a few are a WONDERFUL thing for a child. And who has just one book, anyway?
Book Review: This beautifully illustrated and practically wordless tale illustrates the kindheartedness that creatures show to one another!
Summary: 5 Stars
The African countryside was teeming with life. A pair of red-necked ostriches and a family of zebras leisurely stood in the grass while a giraffe family loped through the grass in the background. An eland and her fawn watched a baboon stroll by with her baby on her back. An African water buffalo stared at a lion family while the elephants trumpeted in the distance. When night rolled around and the moon rose all was quiet and a mouse came out of her rock den to look over the landscape. When the light was out an owl came swooping down to catch her and she narrowly escaped her clutches, but ended up in the lion's. "GRRR."
He teased her a bit and when he let her loose she ran back to her babies. "Squeak, squeak, squeak . . . " The proud lion roamed the grasses, but elsewhere some poachers began to set a rope trap, hopefully to catch him. He wandered into a wooded area where the baboons and crows watched him. The trap was weighted and when he stepped on the trap . . . whoosh! He was pulled up and he roared in anger and fear. "RRROAARRRRRRRRR! The little mouse heard him and quickly ran to help him. "Scratch, scratch." Would such a little creature be able to free the king of the jungle?
This beautifully illustrated and practically wordless tale illustrates the kindheartedness that one creature can show to another, despite differences. It is directly patterned after Aesop's fable, "The Lion and the Mouse." This is the type of wordless tale that can be retold by any adult to a young child from his or her own perspective. Each person can say what the fable of the lion and the mouse means to them in their own life. This gorgeous book is so sweepingly beautiful that few people would want to pass it up for their personal library!