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THE BUTTERFLY LION

Name: THE BUTTERFLY LION
Author: Michael Morpurgo
ISBN: 0-670-87461-2

by Michael Morpurgo ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1997

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A runaway schoolboy finds a magnificent monument to a magnificent animal in this ghost story, at once marvelous and matter-of-fact, from Morpurgo (Robin of Sherwood, 1996, etc.). The author casts himself as the ten-year-old narrator, whose attempt to run away from a miserable boarding-school existence ends in a dusty house, where a friendly old widow shows him a great lion cut into the chalk on a hillside—the butterfly lion. She tells him how it came to be there: Her Bertie, a lonely boy in South Africa, found and began to raise a white lion cub, tearfully saw it sold to a French circus owner, reclaimed it years later during the Great War, and brought it to England to live. When it died, Bertie spent the next 40 years carving its likeness on the hill. Astonishing in itself, the chalk lion becomes even moreso after a rain, when thousands of Adonis Blue butterflies gather on it. Urging him to come again, the old woman takes the boy back to school; only later does he learn that she died—as her husband did—years ago. This dreamlike story is suffused with a man's lifelong love for a rare, gentle animal friend. (Fiction. 9-12)

Pub Date: May 1, 1997

ISBN: 0-670-87461-2

Page Count: 90

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1997

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
THE OGRE WHO WASN'T
by Michael Morpurgo ; illustrated by Emily Gravett

- BOOK REVIEW
WAR HORSE PICTURE BOOK
by Michael Morpurgo ; illustrated by Tom Clohosy Cole

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PUFFIN KEEPER
by Michael Morpurgo ; illustrated by Benji Davies

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JUNGLE DRUM

by Deanna Wundrow ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1999

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All the jungle’s a stage for the resounding chittering, chattering, chirping, and croaking sounds of the rainforest creatures. “The jungle drum talks . . . Ba-da doom. Ba-da doom doom.” An unseen drum determines the rhythm of the jungle, spreading a hush through the trees and across the water as the animals stop to listen. As the drum goes silent, mosquito, tree frog, wild boar, and jaguar spring to life. Insects are in concert with parrots; the monkeys join the recital until the whole jungle, from canopy to forest floor, is ringing. Hand-painted paper collages lend dimensionality to every forest creature, plant, and tree, alternately concealing and revealing animals, and offering vibrant surprises; these jungle murals buzz with color and texture in an animated and expressive work. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: April 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-7613-1270-6

Page Count: 24

Publisher: Millbrook

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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HARRY AND LULU

by Arthur Yorinks ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1999

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PLB 0-7868-2276-7 Yorinks (The Miami Giant, 1995, etc.) captures a child in several deeply recognizable moments: the tantrum, the imaginary journey, the heartbreak of the wrong toy; the delight when it turns out to be the right one. Lulu, who has been whining for a dog, is finally given a toy stuffed poodle, and throws a fit. But one night, after five comic books and a mystery chapter, she discovers that Harry the stuffed poodle can talk. While he won’t eat dog biscuits, he loves pumpernickel bagels. Facing an unconvinced Lulu, Harry says he is going back to France where he came from; Lulu dresses and goes with him. They wander down the street until they come across morning in Paris. Harry rescues Lulu from a crazed French driver and she rescues him from the Seine; cut back to Lulu’s house, where her parents look on happily at the bedtime scene of Lulu and her toy. For Yorinks, that’s an ending that is unequivocably upbeat. Matje’s illustrations are happy, clean-lined, retro scenes, of a world where children and their dogs can go out for an all-night stroll. A Velveteen Rabbit for the ’90s? Not exactly, but it has its moments. (Picture book. 4-8)