Tawny Scrawny Lion

Kathryn Jackson's Tawny Scrawny Lion is a picture-book story for 5 year olds about a very hungry lion and the small rabbit who gets sent to talk to him.

What happens

The lion has a timetable, and it never varies. Monkeys on a Monday. Tuesday is kangaroos, Wednesday zebras, Thursday bears. Friday he chases camels. And then on Saturday, elephants.

He catches every single one of them and he's still all skin and bone. The more he eats, the hungrier he gets, which he blames entirely on everyone else for running away from him in the first place.

So the big animals hold a meeting about it, from a safe distance. Then a fat little rabbit comes hopping past picking berries, and they all decide he's absolutely the right one to go and negotiate.

(They tell him it's an honour. He's thrilled.)

What the rabbit actually does is invite the lion home for supper. Carrot stew. For a lion?

And he mentions, just in passing, that his five fat sisters and four fat brothers are making it right now.

So off they go, the lion doing sums in his head, the rabbit stopping every few minutes to pick mushrooms and herbs and then to catch a few fish, and the walk taking a great deal longer than the lion had in mind.

It's the shape of the very best old picture books. A problem, a plan, a slow build and a properly satisfying finish. The whole thing is a few hundred words, so it reads aloud beautifully, and a five year old who's nearly reading on their own can get through it themselves and feel pleased about it.

The days of the week are a gift at this age, by the way. Most children will be joining in by the second reading.

One small thing. The opening does say plainly that the lion catches and eats the animals he chases, and a child who minds about that may want a quick word about it. Nothing is shown and the rest of the book is very warm indeed.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, Pantaloon is in the library too. Same author, another greedy animal, and a poodle so desperate for a job in a bakery that he turns up disguised as a little old lady.