Overview
My father and I settled in Africa in 1906. . . . And it was there, as a small girl, I was eaten by a lion.
So begins a true story from aviatrix Beryl Markham’s autobiography. Here young Beryl and a “tame” lion called Paddy come together in an encounter that challenges our notions of wild and docile, trust and duplicity, punishment and forgiveness. Coupled with Don Brown’s expressive watercolors, The Good Lion is a powerful story that will leave readers wondering about the true natures of man and beast.
Synopsis
My father and I settled in Africa in 1906. . . . And it was there, as a small girl, I was eaten by a lion.
So begins a true story from aviatrix Beryl Markham’s autobiography. Here young Beryl and a “tame” lion called Paddy come together in an encounter that challenges our notions of wild and docile, trust and duplicity, punishment and forgiveness. Coupled with Don Brown’s expressive watercolors, The Good Lion is a powerful story that will leave readers wondering about the true natures of man and beast.
Publishers Weekly
Brown (Odd Boy Out) brings to life a bold and enchanting girl, the young Beryl Markham. Excerpted from West with the Night, the 1942 autobiography the aviator wrote about her youth in East Africa, the text relates the events of a visit she made with her father to the Elkington Farm, where Paddy, a hand-raised lion, freely roams the estate. "A tame lion in an unnatural lion,'' Markham's father warns her, "and whatever is unnatural is untrustworthy." Brown's sepia-tinted watercolors impart information without drawing attention to themselves. He portrays the narrator with a long brown ponytail and gray trousers. She calls the lion "harmless"; still she "remember[s] not to run," walking slowly past the giant cat when she finds him in her path. A sequence of seven suspenseful pages-one per second of elapsed time, seemingly-shows that Markham's father is right. "There was no sound or wind. Even the lion made no sound as he came swiftly behind me. What followed was my scream that was barely a whisper." During the few moments the lion actually traps her, Brown's golden spreads turn to cold shadows of purple and blue; then, as help quickly arrives, the pictures turn sunny again. "Paddy had lived and died in ways not of his choosing," Markham concludes, with unexpected compassion. Her reverence for the majesty of Nature-even its predatory creatures-will not be lost on young readers. Ages 6-10. (Sept.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
From the Publisher
" . . . This testimony is a compelling insight into the wild." Horn Book"A vivid real-life story with a memorable message." Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly
Brown (Odd Boy Out) brings to life a bold and enchanting girl, the young Beryl Markham. Excerpted from West with the Night, the 1942 autobiography the aviator wrote about her youth in East Africa, the text relates the events of a visit she made with her father to the Elkington Farm, where Paddy, a hand-raised lion, freely roams the estate. "A tame lion in an unnatural lion,'' Markham's father warns her, "and whatever is unnatural is untrustworthy." Brown's sepia-tinted watercolors impart information without drawing attention to themselves. He portrays the narrator with a long brown ponytail and gray trousers. She calls the lion "harmless"; still she "remember[s] not to run," walking slowly past the giant cat when she finds him in her path. A sequence of seven suspenseful pages-one per second of elapsed time, seemingly-shows that Markham's father is right. "There was no sound or wind. Even the lion made no sound as he came swiftly behind me. What followed was my scream that was barely a whisper." During the few moments the lion actually traps her, Brown's golden spreads turn to cold shadows of purple and blue; then, as help quickly arrives, the pictures turn sunny again. "Paddy had lived and died in ways not of his choosing," Markham concludes, with unexpected compassion. Her reverence for the majesty of Nature-even its predatory creatures-will not be lost on young readers. Ages 6-10. (Sept.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.Children's Literature
The nostalgic tone of an adult looking back at her childhood infuses this story and some of its watercolors. The text beautifully evokes the exuberant splendor of Africa's landscape, people, and wildlife as it tells the simple tale of a child warned against a pet lion by her father, and then attacked. The final line tells the moral: "I still have scars from his teeth and claws, but they are very small now and almost forgotten, and I do not begrudge him his moment." Lions will be lions and people should treat them—even tame ones—as such. Unfortunately, the watercolors do not match the text. The cover illustration and the two full-face depictions of the lion staring and the girl, caught between his paws and trying not to be, speak easily to child and adult reader. The other illustrations—almost cartoons—detract from, rather than add to, the text even though they clearly depict the action of the story. 2005, Houghton Mifflin Company, Ages 4 to 8.—Elisabeth Greenberg