Review: The Lion Who Wanted to Love

The Lion Who Wanted to Love

Written by Giles Andreae

Illustrated by David Wojtowycz

Publication Date: 1997

Publisher: Orchard Books

ISBN: 978-1-86039-913-8

Summary/back cover:

Deep in the African heartland

Way out on the hot sunny plains,

There lived a small lion who didn’t fit in

And Leo was this lion’s name.

Now lions are usually fierce

And lions are meant to be strong,

But Leo just wanted to love everybody

And play with his friends all day long.

One of my sons was lucky enough to have this book gifted to him when he was born. This is a firm favourite in our house-hold, one that we come back to again and again.

Leo is a delightful, loveable little lion who doesn’t fit in with his pride. The rest of his family want to devour the other animals but Leo wants to hug the zebras, not eat them. As a result of this un-lion-like behaviour, Leo is banished to the jungle, but his loveable, friendly nature helps him to thrive and succeed despite this initial rejection.

The story is wonderful, the rhyming is clever and rolls off the tongue nicely, and the pictures are cute and colourful. An absolute winner.

My rating:  5 out of 5

Review written by team_s