Jims Lion - Softcover

3.97

335 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1406360716 ISBN 13: 9781406360714

Publisher: Walker Books Ltd

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Jims Lion

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About the Author:

Russell Hoban was the renowned author of many famous novels, including Turtle Diary (which was made into a film starring Ben Kingsley and Glenda Jackson) and Riddley Walker, which won the John W. Campbell Award for science fiction. He also wrote over 50 children's books, including such classics as The Mouse and His Child, Bedtime for Frances, How Tom Beat Captain Najork and The Sea-Thing Child. Born in Pennsylvania in 1925, he moved to London in 1969, and spent the rest of his life there. Alexis Deacon's first picture book Slow Loris was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award. His second Beegu was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Award and selected by the New York Times as one of the year's best illustrated children's books. In 2008, he was chosen as one of the Booktrust's ten Best New Illustrators. About illustrating Jim's Lion, Alexis says, "I wanted the reader to see the choices Jim makes in his dreams. Will he turn and run or will he keep on walking?" Alexis lives in South East London. Visit his website at www.alexisdeacon.co.uk.

From School Library Journal:

K-Gr 3-Critically ill children, a population largely absent from the picture-book world, will now have a hero in Jim. There are no happily ever afters, but instead the realistic victory of courage in the face of surgery, and a Christmas morning spent at home rather than in the hospital. Jim faces an unnamed but clearly life-threatening illness with the help of Nurse Bami. Described as being from Africa and with "tribal scars on her cheeks," she shares with him the idea of a finder who will bring him back from the place he enters-induced sleep. The successful aftermath of the operation is not revealed through the expected hospital scene; the story takes a chronological leap from Jim's dream of his finder, the lion of the title, to his post-release holiday at home. Large, soft illustrations are worked around sizable blocks of text to show an expressive, tow-headed child; a magnificent lion; and loving adults. Movement is shown as a progression of figures, multiple Jims climbing to the top of a cliff, several lions as the animal comes nearer and nearer. Breathtaking pastels in understated blues, greens, and tans with subtle pencil cross-hatching perfectly match the quiet courage of the boy depicted in the gracefully simple text.

Faith Brautigam, Gail Borden Public Library, Elgin, IL

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