Tell Me a Lion Story

Tell Me a Lion Story
Author(s)
Age Range
4+
Release Date
May 24, 2022
ISBN
978-1536218015
Buy This Book
      
Tell me a story—a new one—and make it about a ______!

In this clever, inventive picture book, a child asks their father to tell them a story. But not just any old story, a new story. “And make it about a lion!” The dad begins, but the child interrupts again and again: “The lion doesn’t have to be SOOO BIG.” “Why is the lion so small? Doesn’t he eat dinner?” “Fred? I can think of a hundred zillion better names to give a lion!” Finally, Dad suggests telling the lion story together,and the reader is invited to fill in the blanks—and join in the fun. With lively, stylish artwork and plenty of space for imaginations old and young to add to the story, Tell Me a Lion Story is sure to become a go-to favorite.

Editor review

1 review
Great springboard for creativity
Overall rating
 
4.0
Plot
 
4.0
Characters
 
4.0
Writing Style
 
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
4.0
A young girl asks her father to tell her a story, but isn't pleased with the direction his narrative takes. She demands he come up with a lion story, but doesn't like the size of the lion or the named the father gives him, so the father wisely tells her that they will tell the story together. The rest of the book has Mad Lib style blanks so that the reader of the book can contribute to the story as well. The lion invents unnamed things, flies with great unspecificity, and travels to the moon before heading home to put on his pajamas. The lion then asks the girl and her father to tell HIM a story, and make it about a ________!
Good Points
The illustration style instantly took me back to Edith and Clement Hurd's Johnny Lion's Book (1965), with it's bright colors and rough edged pencil over mixed media drawings. Perhaps it was the fact that the father sported a plaid dress shirt and reminded me a bit of Alvin and the Chipmunk's human adoptive father, David Seville (Check the pictures; I'll wait!), that this had such a strong 1960s vibe for me.

My own children were huge fans of telling stories, and loved writing them down and illustrating them, but many of my middle school students struggle with coming up with the most basic story ideas. A book like this is a great way to encourage young readers to take ownership of stories and create their own, starting with filling in the blanks and hopefully moving on to formulating more ideas. While having this book in a library might cause a few problems (blanks are notoriously hard to LEAVE blank!), it is a great book in an elementary classroom, and I can see a lot of great lion stories being produced by first and second graders inspired by this tale.

Hills' Rocket Writes a Story, Coyle and Taylor's The Biggest Story, Venable's Amy the Red Panda Is Writing The Best Story in The World, and Spinelli's The Best Story are all great books to pair with this book and encourage young readers to come up with their own story. Bonus points if you sew paper together, have the child illustrate the book, and bind the pages together with wallpaper samples. Warning: the resultant tome will be impossible to part with in forty years' time, although wallpaper today probably doesn't come in Harvest Gold velvet flocked patterns!
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