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Summary
Summary
Funny, fresh and very modern, this update on the fable of the lion and the mouse is a marvelous tale of a relationship between two unlikely friends.
One day, the mouse marches into the lion's den without an invitation. Before the lion can eat him for breakfast, the mouse begs for mercy. "If you let me go, I might be able to return the favor." The lion laughs at the idea of such a small, insignificant creature helping him out ... until the next day when the mouse frees the lion from a hunter's trap.
Jairo Buitrago and Rafael Yockteng, one of the great creative teams in picture books, have fun in this simple and never-didactic story about how it's possible to get along through negotiation, acceptance and learning to put up with a friend's eccentricities. You can be good to one another not because you expect anything in return but just because you are friends.
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.2
> With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2
Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.2
Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.6
Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.2
Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.6
Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.9
Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics (e.g., opposition of good and evil) and patterns of events (e.g., the quest) in stories, myths, and traditional literature from different cultures.
Author Notes
Jairo Buitrago is a children's book author who has collaborated with Rafael Yockteng on several picture books, including Jimmy the Greatest! (six starred reviews), Two White Rabbits (three starred reviews) and Walk with Me (three starred reviews, Kirkus Prize shortlist). They won the "A la Orilla del Viento" contest for the Spanish edition of Walk with Me, which was also named to IBBY's Honor List. Their books have also appeared on "Los mejores libros del año" (Venezuela's Banco del Libro), Kirkus Best Books, the Horn Book Fanfare and in the White Ravens Catalogue. Jairo lives in Mexico City.
Rafael Yockteng has illustrated many highly acclaimed children's books, including Sopa de frijoles / Bean Soup by Jorge Argueta (USBBY Outstanding International Books) and Jimmy the Greatest! (six starred reviews), Two White Rabbits (three starred reviews), Walk with Me (three starred reviews, Kirkus Prize shortlist) and On the Other Side of the Garden (three starred reviews) by Jairo Buitrago. Together, Jairo Buitrago and Rafael Yockteng have won the "A la Orilla del Viento" contest, and their books have been included on IBBY's Honor List, "Los mejores libros del año" (Venezuela's Banco del Libro), Kirkus Best Books, the Horn Book Fanfare and in the White Ravens Catalogue. Rafael lives in Bogotá.
Elisa Amado is a Guatemalan-born author and translator. Her books have been on the Américas Award Commended List and on USBBY's Outstanding International Books List. She lives in Toronto.Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-What can another version of this classic fable possibly add to the canon? When it is created by Buitrago and Yockteng, the answer is quite a bit. From the first characterizations, readers understand that this is not their grandmother's Aesop. The lion is described as "lovely.like a sun," while the mouse is "a busybody and a glutton." The vocabulary is colorful, the styling smart, reminiscent of William Steig. When the mouse overreaches in their first encounter, the lion dismisses him. The omniscient narrator explains: "`Insignificant' means being of no use or importance and is the most insulting thing you could say about a mouse." Yockteng's soft compositions are rendered in pencil and colored digitally with a subdued woodland palette of greens, browns, grays, copper, and gold. Humor and drama unfold with restraint: a single claw pressed on the tip of the tail had trapped the intruder. After the lion is ensnared by a hunter's net and freed by the mouse, the plot diverges from the original. Rain compels the lion to shelter the rodent with his paw. Fearing a never-ending cycle of favors, the mouse expresses concern, but the beast's motivation is genuine, and "that is how they began to be good to each other." Never heavy-handed, the levity expands with the friendship, as when the lion's hairy tail is draped over the mouse, creating a hilarious miniature doppelgänger, roaring at an insect. VERDICT An intelligent glimpse at how a friendship between unlikely candidates might be possible. A stellar addition for all collections.-Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
After a lion agrees to spare him, a mouse pledges to return the favor and does. But when the lion does him another favor, the mouse wonders what's up. (Answer: friendship.) This winning update of Aesop's "The Lion and the Mouse" has tasteful art juxtaposed with amusing omniscient narration ("'Insignificant'...is the most insulting thing you could say about a mouse"). (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Buitrago and Yockteng's latest literary endeavor reconsiders a well-known Aesop fable.A lion and a mouse live in the woods among other creatures big and small. The mouse, "a busybody and a glutton," one day decides to enter the lion's home uninvited. Before the rude guest can leave, the "very lovely" lion seizes him by the tail. The lion threatens the mouse, who would rather not be eaten. (He intends on meeting his girlfriend, after all.) So, the mouse offers to repay the lion someday in exchange for his life. The lion, ever a generous host, laughs off the proposal "as only lions can" but casts the mouse out instead of eating him. Naturally, the lion must swallow his pride the next day after falling prey to a hunter's trap. At first, the lion doesn't recognize the mouse "because all mice looked alike to him" (a telling detail), but the mouse nonetheless frees the frightened feline from an unfortunate fate. Up until now, the story beats remain the same as Aesop's as Buitrago weaves this familiar tale, lacing it through with enough peculiar details to build strong personalities for the lion and the mouse. The author, however, continues the story and moves beyond the well-worn fable to ascertain how a friendship can forge itself, stemming from reciprocated kindness. Yockteng's ferocious, low-key mixed-media artwork features stunning vignettes and page-filling spreads of woodlands populated with curious creatures.A grand, morally opulent retelling with a message for our age. (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
