Pages

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

The Lion And The Bird: PB #4 for 14:14 Review



Title: The Lion And The Bird
Author/Illustrator:
Marianne Dubuc
Publisher: 
Enchanted Lion Books
Year: 2014
Word Count: 142
___________________
Summary

One autumn day, a lion finds a wounded bird in his garden. The lion nurses the bird back to health. In the process, they build a beautiful friendship, which saves them both from pain of loneliness. When spring arrives, the bird rejoins his flock. Lion is lonely once again, until the bird returns in autumn.

Story Element: Character

This gentle story shows a loving Lion who through words and actions cares for a hurt bird. They become dear friends. And when the Bird is ready, Lion quietly watches him fly away. The character of Lion is akin to a parent caring for a child until one day that child leaves the nest.
Dubuc’s warm illustrations show a deep understanding of childhood and loneliness, but also have a musical quality. “She plays with scale and negative space in a courageous and uncommon way — scenes fade into opacity as time passes, Lion shrinks as Bird flies away, and three blank pages punctuate the story as brilliantly placed pauses that capture the wistfulness of waiting and longing. What emerges is an entrancing sing-song rhythm of storytelling and of emotion.”

(Post #4 for the 14:14 Picture Book Blog Review Challenge created by Christie Wild of Write Wild. http://christiewrightwild.blogspot.com)

12 comments:

  1. How fitting is the publisher for this book! Enchanted Lion Books. Read more blog posts in this blog hop.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, you've been a great hopper! Thanks for hopping to my blog, and thanks for posting about this book. I think I've seen it and thought the illustrations looked beautiful, but for whatever reason haven't read it yet. Now I definitely will!

      Delete
    2. Laura, Thanks for hopping to my blog too.

      Delete
  2. Sounds lovely. Have you read A Letter for Leo? It came out in 2014 and has a very similar plot setup.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glad you posted about this book. I keep seeing it show up online and wondered what it was about.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I just got this one from the library! Thanks for the review!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautiful book, and character sounds like it is tenderly related so well. Wow, the three blank pages of 'waiting' is genius. Thanks Manju for sharing this.

    ReplyDelete
  6. On the 3 blank pages, there is a musical note.

    ReplyDelete

Share your thoughts