Since the book is solely illustrations the only text readers are presented with is Pinkney’s author note, where he states: “For me, this story offers far more than a simple moral of how the meek can trump the mighty….I’ve come to appreciate how both animal are equally large at hear: the courageous mouse, and the lion who must rise above his beastly nature to set his small prey free.”This sentence sums the book up well, and the moral that kindness is important and never wasted but rather returned is something that children (and adults) should be reminded of often. Pinkney’s stunning illustrations of the African landscape and the care with which he has drawn out the characters in the fable deliver. The cliché, a picture is worth a thousand words, holds true in the case of The Lion & the Mouse. Though at first this may seem strange, no aspect of the story or its moral is lost by this artistic choice. Pinkney is an award-winning artist and chose to tell this famous fable with no text. Later when the Lion is caught in a poacher’s trap the mouse chews through the trap and sets the lion free, proving that what goes around comes around. This unique children’s book is a wordless reimagining of one of Aesop’s most famous fables in which a ferocious lion plans to eat the timid mouse that woke him from his nap, but the lion has a change of heart and lets the mouse go. The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney was the winner of the 2010 Caldecott Medal, the highest honor for children’s books.
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