The Lion and the Mouse

A reckless mouse accidentally scampers across a sleeping lion’s paw. The lion awakens with a roar, but he lets the mouse go free. In gratitude, the mouse promises to help the lion if he is ever in need. The lion laughs at the very idea, but sometimes even a little mouse can be strong, and even a lion can be helpless. Bernadette Watts has created an appealing jungle setting for her simple retelling of a favorite Aesop fable. A tiny mouse helps a mighty lion, who once showed him mercy, escape from a trap. AUTHOR: Though many modern scholars dispute his existence, Aesop’s life was chronicled by first century Greek historians who wrote that Aesop, or Aethiop, was born into Greek slavery in 620 B.C. Freed because of his wit and wisdom, Aesop supposedly traveled throughout Greece and was employed at various times by the governments of Athens and Corinth. Some of Aesop’s most recognized fables are The Tortoise and the Hare, The Fox and the Grapes, and The Ant and the Grasshopper. His simple but effective morals are widely used and illustrated for children. Bernadette Watts has loved to draw since her childhood in England. She created her first picture book under the influence of Beatrix Potter. Watts studied at the Maidstone Art School in Kent and is the illustrator of North South fairy tales The Snow Queen and The Ugly Duckling. REVIEWS: Gentle, black-and-white pencil drawings mirror the hushed reverence of this haunting retelling of a well-known Aesop’s fable. Just a few lines evoke the lion’s command of his forest kingdom and build a sense of foreboding (“The mouse] stayed, still as stone, his tiny heart beating with the memory of the lion’s roar. He crouched, silent as rock, until the shadow of the lion’s paw had passed”). Alternating with full-page illustrations, clusters of several small sketches focus frame by frame on one particular moment-the lion’s roar, encroaching hunters or the mouse gnawing at the ropes that trap the lion. The effect is dynamic, providing the visual rhythms often missing from monochromatic art. Gossamer soft in its drawings and text, this book is nevertheless animated enough to capture the attention of the very young. -Publishers Weekly Colour illustrations