Module 2 The Lion and the Mouse

Title of Book: The Lion and the Mouse; Author: Jerry Pinkney: / ISBN: 978-03-16013567; Published by Little, Brown and Company Ages 4-8


Summary: A lion is resting in the jungle and a mouse stumbles into his clutches. The mouse pleads for mercy saying someday he may be of some help to the lion. The lion laughs at the thought that one so small could ever help the king of the jungle, but the lion relents and releases the mouse. Hunters come to the jungle and set a rope trap which nabs the lion and leave shim swinging helpless from a tree. The piteous lion roars for help and the mouse comes and gnaws on the ropes which finally dump the lion unceremoniously on the ground.


My Impressions: What a true gem! Pinkney is no stranger to the Caldecott award (silver medals for The Ugly Duckling, Noah’s Ark, Mirandy and Brother Wind, The Talking Eggs and John Henry); I’m so glad he’s won the gold this time! This virtually wordless large format book is illustrated in a cozy, detailed style that is very reminiscent of Jan Brett’s The Mitten. The lion’s expression when the mouse comes to his rescue should be in a picture dictionary for chagrin! FYI- When you buy this (and you absolutely must) be careful to get the edition that has the full two page spread illustrations on the end papers and not the 1 page edition that I ended up with.


Flashlight Reading Under the Covers Rating: 5 out of 5


Reviews and Awards:
Caldecott gold medal book 2010

By ROGER SUTTON editor in chief of The Horn Book Magazine Published: November 5, 2009 Retrieved from
http://readroger.hbook.com/2009/11/lions-are.html

The art of Jerry Pinkney’s new picture book is commanding enough to do without the author’s name or even the title on the front cover. A jacket with no words at all? It’s been done before, but not often — probably most notably with Fred Marcellino’s “Puss in Boots” (1990), which won a Caldecott Honor. That cover featured a big cat, too, but here Pinkney gives us a lion’s head with a magnificent mane, filling the entire frame. The Sun King demeanor is somewhat diminished by the uneasy glance the lion is casting stage right, toward the back cover, where a mouse looks up with a question in its eye. Which creature will be the hero of the tale within? This is Pinkney’s second go at “The Lion and the Mouse,” the first being a brief entry in his “Aesop’s Fables” of almost 20 years ago. But that first pair were only supporting players to Aesop’s text, 200 or so words plus a moral: “Even the strongest can sometimes use the help of the smallest.” The new book has only seven distinct words, all sound effects — an owl, stalking the mouse, “whoooo” and “screeeech”; the mouse, “scratch” and “squeak.” Providing the plot is the “putt-putt-putt” of the jeep bearing humans into the Serengeti landscape (a note says).
And you don’t even need the sounds to see exactly what’s going on. Wordless picture books require great cunning not only to provide a recognizable pantomime but also to lead readers from one scene to the next: how do you know when to turn the page when there are no words to pull you forward? Pinkney’s story begins with a mouse pausing alertly in —what is this? — a big paw print in the sandy ground, one of a set tracking across the title-page spread. We turn the page, dawn is (beautifully) breaking, the mouse is poised, apparently listening. . . . Good thing there is a hole in that fallen tree on the far right, because on the next page the mouse barely dives in when the owl swoops. The mouse moves on, coming to rest on — “Is that a snake?” asked the 4-year-old I was sharing the book with. Pinkney’s sly use of nature’s camouflage causes us to look more closely. Nope: it was a tail, then a furry back, and before you know it the lion has the mouse by its tail, his “GRRR” seeming more puzzled than threatening, the mouse’s squeak an “Oops!”

Winner of five Caldecott Honors, Pinkney has always seemed happier drawing animals than people. Look, in his 2007 retelling, at his studied Little Red Riding Hood next to his lively Wolf. His beasts are not humans in disguise; while both the lion and the mouse have emotions and intelligence in their eyes, they are animal in nature. We don’t know why the lion lets the mouse go free or why the mouse nibbles the lion out of the net planted by the men (poachers? wardens?) from the jeep. But it’s actions in this case that count. That’s the moral of the story.


Suggestions for Use in a Library:

Capture the attention of your patrons by copying the picture where the mouse and lion are eye to eye and then mounting on a wall. Make some speech bubbles and leave them next to the picture for children to post what they think the lion and mouse might be saying to each other.

For your older patrons, after sharing The Lion and the Mouse, read 14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy. That book is about a tribe in Kenya who after hearing about the devastation to America on 9/11, generously gifts America with 14 cows because there is no nation that is immune from hurt not a nation that is too small to help others. Discuss the similarities of the two books.


See if you can dig up an old Mouse Trap game that you can leave out on a table for a month for the children to explore. Mouse Trap is a game with little chutes and balls and a little trap that comes down on the mouse if you’ve built the trap correctly.