If I Were a Lion

"I'm sitting in my time-out chair/ because my mother/ put me there," pouts a girl with a mop of red hair and garden-gnome features. Her mother sweeps cold cereal from the floor: "You try my/ patience, child!/ I do not like it/ when you're/ wild." In Weeks's (Angel Face) impish verse, the girl goes on to imagine the misdeeds of animals who really are wild: "If I were a lion, / I'd growl and roar/ and knock the dishes/ on the floor." Solomon's (Clever Beatrice) bold gouaches incorporate computer-altered snips of animal fur and scales; sharp textures, layers of purple, jade and putty-colored wash jostle one another and the animal subjects for visual attention. In a succession of high-voltage spreads and vignettes, frogs zap flies from the dollhouse boudoir, raccoons get treed in the hat rack by alligators, and mountain goats come to eat the curtains. The redheaded narrator isn't in the least intimidated by the menagerie that appears before her; she claps her hands and howls along with the wolves, then shoves all the creatures into the toy box and greets her mother with a sweet smile. "Mother doesn't realize/ that lions don't apologize./ But when she does, / then she will see, / the opposite of wild is... me," she ends, with a treacly smile. While the girl's rebellion serves chiefly as a vehicle for Solomon's trippy, beguiling paintings, the punchy verse and wealth of visual detail will stand up to repeated readings. Ages 3-7. (Mar.)

Copyright 2004 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

PreS-Gr 1-When a young girl is sent to a time-out chair, she defends herself by asking, "Wild?/Who me?" With wide-eyed innocence, she proclaims: "Wild has feathers./Wild has scales./Wild has whiskers, tusks, and tails./Wild is furry./Wild is strong./Wild does not know/right from wrong." As she describes each characteristic, unruly animals take over the kitchen and living room-snorting, charging, and growling as they break dishes, overturn furniture, and create messes. The narrator seems to be surprised by their antics, but the gleam in her eye makes it obvious that she's not as innocent as she appears. So who created the havoc-the animals or this "meek and mild" child? Sharp-eyed readers will enjoy spotting the toys being blamed for the disasters; the endpapers, with numerous stuffed animals strewn haphazardly across them, provide another clue. Solomon adds to the humor by giving the youngster oversized features that make her appear cartoonlike, but with a painterly touch just shy of realistic. Splashes of salt resist on each page form a soft patterned background for the carpeting. An interesting combination of gouache brush strokes scattered over watercolor washes captures the texture of fur and feathers. Pair this book with Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are (HarperCollins, 1988) for another protagonist whose imagination runs rampant when he's confined, and to create a storytime that will grab the attention of children who have been placed in a time-out.-Laurie Edwards, West Shore School District, Camp Hill, PA

Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.