The Lion & the Mouse
by Jerry Pinkney (Author)
In award-winning artist Jerry Pinkney's wordless adaptation of one of Aesop's most beloved fables, an unlikely pair learn that no act of kindness is ever wasted. After a ferocious lion spares a cowering mouse that he'd planned to eat, the mouse later comes to his rescue, freeing him from a poacher's trap.
With vivid depictions of the landscape of the African Serengeti and expressively-drawn characters, Pinkney makes this a truly special retelling, and his stunning pictures speak volumes.
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His luxuriant use of close-ups humanizes his animal characters without idealizing them, and that’s no mean feat. In a closing artist’s note, Pinkney talks about his choice to forgo text.
Kirkus Review - Children
If the five cubs in the back endpapers are a surprise, the mouse family of ten, perched on the ridge of father lion's back, is sheer delight. Unimpeachable.
Horn Book Magazine
By retelling Aesop's fable entirely in his signature pencil and watercolor art, Pinkney encourages closer exploration of the pleasing detail with which he amplifies it.
Hornbook Guide to Children
Publishers Weekly
Other than some squeaks, hoots and one enormous roar, Pinkney's ("Little Red Riding Hood") interpretation of Aesop's fable is wordlessas is its striking cover, which features only a head-on portrait of the lion's face. Mottled, tawny illustrations show a mouse unwittingly taking refuge on a lion's back as it scurries away from an owl. The large beast grabs and then releases the tiny creature, who later frees the lion who has become tangled in a hunter's snare. Pinkney enriches this classic tale of friendship with another universal themefamilyaffectingly illustrated in several scenes as well as in the back endpapers, which show the lion walking with his mate and cubs as the mouse and her brood ride on his back. Pinkney's artist's note explains that he set the book in Africa's Serengeti, with its wide horizon and abundant wildlife so awesome yet fragilenot unlike the two sides of each of the heroes. Additional African species grace splendid panoramas that balance the many finely detailed, closeup images of the protagonists. Pinkney has no need for words; his art speaks eloquently for itself. Ages 36. "(Sept.)"
Copyright 2009 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.
School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 3-The African Serengeti forms the backdrop for a lion that captures a rodent and-for reasons left for readers to ponder-releases it. His decision is rewarded, and the value of even the smallest creature is recognized in this stunning Caldecott winner rendered in expressive watercolors. A visual feast.
Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Review quotes
Fables
Folklore
