If I Were a Lion

This book must have been written about my daughter and I, and countless other mothers and their daughters! VERY CUTE STORY and GREAT ILLUSTRATIONS! My daughter is 7 and she loves to read this book to me at least once a week. Buy it, you will be glad you did.

I love this book. It expresses so much of the little girl's personality and her sassiness! The illustrations are wonderful and compliment well a beautifully written story.

A chubby-cheeked, big-eyed cutie directly addresses the reader, seeking to defend herself after her mommy gives her a time out. Her explanation reveals a vivid imagination that turns her playroom stuffed animals into real wild animals that come alive to wreak hypothetical chaos. I have to say that one of the things I like best about the illustrations is that her contemporary playroom actually looks like my kids' playroom, crammed with legos, doll house, barbies, baby dolls, etc. I cringe that my kids may get ideas about drawing on the walls from this story, but this is too cute a book to let that get in the way of enjoying it.

After our young hero knocks her lasagna dinner on the floor, her mother sends her to the proverbial corner time-out chair for being "wild." The little redhead protests, all big-eyed and incredulous: "Wild? Who me? That's so absurd. How could she even use that word?" And to prove herself innocent of this outrageous charge, she fantasizes what she would do if she were REALLY wild. She trots outs a series of hypotheticals in a defense worthy of Louis Nizer or Perry Mason: If I were a lion, I'd growl and I'd roar And knock the dishes on the floor. I'd scare the hair right off the cat, but do you see me doing that? No, in fact, we don't! Case closed? Not yet, for we see that her imagination running wild (in some of the best illustrations of the year). There's a large tawny lion with a reddish mane (that suggests blood), standing and roaring in the kitchen amid smashed dishes and one terribly frightened cat! On the next page, she explains that, were she guilty, were she really wild, she'd be a ferocious bear: "I'd scratch and poke and pierce and tear, not sit here nicely in my chair." Dynamic, richly detailed pictures of other wild animals accompanying some clever poetic arguments serve to further her case. This funny and entertaining book gently recognizes how difficult it can be to take responsibility, and the imaginative lengths to which kids (and many adults) will go to find a convincing alibi. As stated above, the pictures are simply outstanding; Heather Solomon gets the most out of the popular watercolor/gouache format. Her very expressive pictures have compositional and textural strength--she does wonders with rhino hide. Sarah Weeks' story captures resentful imagination very well, but also shows its transient nature. The girl's thoughts stray from wild animals to tamer ones (e.g. an owl, a bunny, reptiles, and even lambs) in a psychological statement that we have both angry and tender thoughts. Week's poetry has a very inventive style, with a hint of Tin Pan Alley in one series: "Mother doesn't realize/that lions don't apologize/ But when she does, then she will see, the opposite of wild...is me." I recommend this exceptional book very highly; it's one of the year's best.

A book with beautiful pictures and really good story.