How to be a Lion by Ed Vere

Some say words can't change the world.

Leonard says if they make you think,

then maybe they can.

Leonard is a different. He is not fierce. He would rather make friends with Marianne, a duck. He has no intention of eating her with a crunch, crunch, chomp. The other lions are astounded. Lions are meant to hunt in packs. They are meant to eat ducks. They are certainly NOT meant to make friends with other animals and even worse write poetry.  Leonard, however, is determined to prove them wrong. He has no intention of eating his friend. He spends some time on his thinking hill and eventually he devises the perfect plan. And yes it is a poem.

"The idea grew
They put their words together like this like that
building them into a poem
that made sense of what they thought."

Leonard recites his poem to the other lions. It is a powerful piece of persuasion. Words can change the world!

"Why don't you be you ...
And I will be I."

How to be a Lion was the winner of the 2019 Oscars Book Prize. Kirkus said this book is marvelous. Book Trust said this book is perfect.

I discovered How to be a Lion when I was talking about Almost Anything by Sophy Henn. Reading How to be a Lion this week I saw the words I quoted at the start of this post. They have come at exactly the right time. Each year IBBY Australia host a special event here in Sydney to celebrate International Children's Book Day.  In 2020 this event will be held on Saturday 4th April and Maxine Beneba Clarke (one of our speakers) has given us permission to use a quote which I found on her booking agency profile page:

“words change the world”

This quote will be the title for our day. We have invited Maxine Beneba Clarke and Gabrielle Wang to speak at our afternoon event in Strathfield.  Maxine is the author of Patchwork Bike which recently won Boston Globe Horn Book Award. Her most recent book for children is Fashionista. Gabrielle Wang is the author of over twenty books including Wishbird and The Beast of Hushing Wood.

 Image Source ABC News

Image source: https://gabriellewang.com/about/