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jaojins's review
4.0
Audience: PreK-2nd
Appeal: Beautiful pictures and no words let the reader tell the story to himself/herself. Kids not familiar with Aesop's tale of the lion and the mouse would benefit from adult guidance, although a child can also make up his/her own story for the pictures.
2010 Caldecott Award Winner
Appeal: Beautiful pictures and no words let the reader tell the story to himself/herself. Kids not familiar with Aesop's tale of the lion and the mouse would benefit from adult guidance, although a child can also make up his/her own story for the pictures.
2010 Caldecott Award Winner
cris_bookreader's review
5.0
Assignment: Picture Book Project
Category: Caldecott
Recommending Source: Caldecott Medal 2010
Review: In the African Serengeti, a mouse accidentally encounters a sleeping lion while trying to escape being prey to an owl. The lion examines the mouse and decides to set the mouse free. Later that day, poachers set out a trap and the lion gets caught. The lion lets out a troubled roar that the mouse hears, so the mouse comes to the rescue, bites through the ropes, and releases the lion from the entrapment. Thus, begins a peculiar friendship between the lion and the mouse.
Pencil, watercolors, and colored pencils bring the animals in the African Serengeti to life in this book. On the dustcover, a close-up view of a lion’s face encompasses the whole page. There is no text at all other than on the spine of the book. The back cover has a close-up view of a mouse staring back at the lion. Underneath the dustcover, the mouse and lion share the front cover, while the back cover showcases all the animals that live there. Pinkney uses only onomatopoeia in addition to his illustrations throughout the book. The watercolors blend nicely together in every scene and they add detail and movement to the natural setting. At the end of the story is an author’s note about his inspiration and experiences that helped shape the book.
A good activity for this book would be to give the children an opportunity to narrate the scene themselves. It would be interesting to hear and share their versions of the story. Another good lesson to teach the children is that they can learn to be friends with other children despite their differences and learn to accept and respect each other for their unique qualities. A discussion about acts of kindness would be another good lesson. The students could then be assigned to perform at least one random act of kindness per week. Creating illustrations and writing about their experiences in journals would allow them to document them. Finally, another activity would be to construct a comparison chart identifying the similarities and differences between the lion and the mouse. Creating their own lion or mouse puppets with paper bags or faces using paper plates would be a good extension to the activity.
After reading this book, it instantly became a favorite for me. I enjoyed spending a good amount of time examining each scene among all the pages. I agree with Jerry Pinkney about how the behavior and relationship between these two characters is strong enough to provide deep meaning to the nearly wordless book. With as much detail that Pinkney put into the illustrations of the setting and characters, it's evident that he cares deeply for their well-being by preserving them so beautifully in this book.
Category: Caldecott
Recommending Source: Caldecott Medal 2010
Review: In the African Serengeti, a mouse accidentally encounters a sleeping lion while trying to escape being prey to an owl. The lion examines the mouse and decides to set the mouse free. Later that day, poachers set out a trap and the lion gets caught. The lion lets out a troubled roar that the mouse hears, so the mouse comes to the rescue, bites through the ropes, and releases the lion from the entrapment. Thus, begins a peculiar friendship between the lion and the mouse.
Pencil, watercolors, and colored pencils bring the animals in the African Serengeti to life in this book. On the dustcover, a close-up view of a lion’s face encompasses the whole page. There is no text at all other than on the spine of the book. The back cover has a close-up view of a mouse staring back at the lion. Underneath the dustcover, the mouse and lion share the front cover, while the back cover showcases all the animals that live there. Pinkney uses only onomatopoeia in addition to his illustrations throughout the book. The watercolors blend nicely together in every scene and they add detail and movement to the natural setting. At the end of the story is an author’s note about his inspiration and experiences that helped shape the book.
A good activity for this book would be to give the children an opportunity to narrate the scene themselves. It would be interesting to hear and share their versions of the story. Another good lesson to teach the children is that they can learn to be friends with other children despite their differences and learn to accept and respect each other for their unique qualities. A discussion about acts of kindness would be another good lesson. The students could then be assigned to perform at least one random act of kindness per week. Creating illustrations and writing about their experiences in journals would allow them to document them. Finally, another activity would be to construct a comparison chart identifying the similarities and differences between the lion and the mouse. Creating their own lion or mouse puppets with paper bags or faces using paper plates would be a good extension to the activity.
After reading this book, it instantly became a favorite for me. I enjoyed spending a good amount of time examining each scene among all the pages. I agree with Jerry Pinkney about how the behavior and relationship between these two characters is strong enough to provide deep meaning to the nearly wordless book. With as much detail that Pinkney put into the illustrations of the setting and characters, it's evident that he cares deeply for their well-being by preserving them so beautifully in this book.
jbolwerk8's review
3.0
In this wordless picture book, a mouse is escaping the clutches of an owl and lands on a lion, disrupting him. The lion decides to let the mouse go, and he runs back to his family safely. Later on, some poachers set a trap that the lion gets caught in, and the mouse hears his roar. The mouse runs over and chews the rope to help the lion escape, and they both go back to their families with a mutual understanding and acceptance of the other.
I had “read” this story a long time ago and didn’t particularly get it because of the lack of words. However, this time around, I took my time looking at the images and it was a lot easier for me to play the story out in my head. I like that the occasional onomatopoeias are included to give some structure, for those unfamiliar with wordless picture books. I think the morals of the story are easy enough to see, yet they could make for a good conversation for children to try to determine. I also really like the author’s note at the end and the background thoughts the author provides.
I had “read” this story a long time ago and didn’t particularly get it because of the lack of words. However, this time around, I took my time looking at the images and it was a lot easier for me to play the story out in my head. I like that the occasional onomatopoeias are included to give some structure, for those unfamiliar with wordless picture books. I think the morals of the story are easy enough to see, yet they could make for a good conversation for children to try to determine. I also really like the author’s note at the end and the background thoughts the author provides.
jenrobbins5's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
cstoeger's review
Beautiful illustrations, based on the fable, "Lion and the Mouse".