Randy's Dandy Lions

I've always liked Bill Peet's work ever since I was a young girl because of his very zany style that he had inherited from his days at Disney's Studios. His illustrations in his delightful books for kids are quite elegant and humorous as well and he also had a poetic talent for creating animal fables all about lessons taught in a certain character's life. Here I recently came across this very amusing tale all about five crowardly lions who had to face the stage-fear of a big circus audience gawking at them. So the owner of the Big Top was forced to hire a very cruel lion-tamer to whip them into obedience. Instead, the five poor lions all began to howl and howl despite being threatened to be sold away or fed nothing but lettuce and heavily sprayed with water from elephants' trunks. And the whole circus suffered as a result from the mistreatment of such noble creatures like lions. What a beautiful story that carries a very stern moral that everyone of any age will understand at once!

We were given a very worn copy of this book, which set us off in search of a clean copy, and turned us on to the work of Bill Peet. "We" are a family of five, with two kids ( ages four and five) that are read to each night at bedtime. If you are a parent who engages in this reading ritual, then you know what a drag it is to read the same book 200 times in a year. You learn to dread having to read some books, and hope for others. "Randy's Dandy Lions" is the one I hope to have to read.This book is written in a lyrical style that makes for a quick read. It is similar to "A Fly Went By", but without so much repitition. The artwork is excellent, which you know if you are familiar with the work Bill Peet. Some of his books are too long for reading to small children. This one is not.

The lions' fear of large crowds is understandable. Randy's refusal of Colonel Bower's order to whip them at the cost of his prized circus job is an act of nobility. Peet's iambic pentameter is at once charming and most accessible. This is a one-more-chance morality tale that delights without resort to supernaturalism.