Lions at Lunchtime

Lions at Lunchtime by Mary Pope Osborne is a time-travel adventure for 7 year olds in which Jack would very much like an answer to one question.

What happens

Where are the lions?

A small deerlike animal appears at the edge of the woods, which is how they know the magic tree house is back. Morgan gives them a riddle and a book about Africa. She tells them to keep an eye out. She does not really explain for what.

They land in the top of a palm tree with a giraffe eating leaves beside them. Below is a wide river and a very large number of animals waiting to get across it.

Annie decides they need her help. Jack decides Annie is nuts. They are both a bit right.

This is a good one if your child likes facts smuggled inside a story. Jack keeps stopping to read his research book, so you get a giraffe's hooves being the size of dinner plates and the reason the zebras go into the water first. Then the story picks up again straight away.

Annie is the other half of the appeal. She talks to animals, she wades into things she shouldn't, and she is right about half the time. If you've got a child who would absolutely march down the bank and start directing traffic, they will recognise her instantly.

There are a few genuinely tense pages early on. Annie slips into a mudhole, sinks up to her chin, and a vulture starts circling above her because it thinks she is nearly finished. Jack gets her out with a branch and some shouting. It is early setup rather than a twist, but it is frightening while it lasts.

Two hyenas turn up next, laughing at them, and Jack has to look up what a predator is. Nothing awful happens to anyone in the end. Still, the danger is real and the book never pretends otherwise.

If your reader worries easily, that mud scene is the one to know about. If they like a proper scare that resolves quickly, it is probably the best bit in the book.

There is also an elephant who gives them both a shower, which is exactly as funny as it sounds.

What to read next

The one after this swaps the heat for ice. Polar Bears Past Bedtime is in the library, and that time an owl comes to fetch them in the middle of the night, still in their pyjamas.