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#StoryOwlsReviews The Lion King

World Book Day just passed by. Our earlier goal was to start our Book Review series on this blog on that auspicious day. However, the work week got hectic and so Storyowls bring you the first book review, a couple of days late. Expect a book review every week henceforth :) 

The Book: The Lion King
The Author: Don Ferguson
Appropriate age group: 3 to As long as you want to read!



The first time I heard about this book was when I was tuned into Radio and they were playing "Hakuna Matata"... I fell in love with the concept of 2 words turning into a problem free philosophy.

Most of us would be familiar with the movie. The book pretty much is a summary of the movie. Lion King is all about this young lion cub Simba who is born as a future king to the animals of the Pride Rock! He is quite a carefree, brave guy who enjoys going on adventures, with his friend Nala a lioness cub, to prove that he can handle everything but then keeps falling into trouble. 



My son was a pretty calm boy before I got him introduced to Simba. Now he is turning into a naughty boy making me super happy and grandparents super-worried. We have overturned chairs , clothes pulled out of cupboard to make a place to sleep, washing machine full of stuff which he thinks is dirty...😊
The sorrow  and guilt that Simba feels at his father's death becomes his life changing event. The book does leave the parents to explain the concept of death to children. My son is just 2 so I always give this part a miss and say Mufasa got hurt and went off to the hospital. The flip side of this explanation is he is surprised that there is no pic of an ambulance to take Mufasa to the hospital. 


Simba then meets Timon (a meerkat) and Pumba (a warthog). A beautiful friendship  ensues and they grow up together. I love this friendship journey. This gives me a window Where I can explain sharing and caring and having fun with friends.

The book then goes on to tell us how we have to face our fears and overcome them. Simba faces his fears and also finally the truth triumphs.

The illustrations are quite colorful and help young  children (2 -6 yrs) understand the plot easily. It is a good suggest for early readers. (5 -10 yrs) Personally I love the coloring details of each scene especially the way the menace in hyenas and sorrow of Simba are brought out. 

My son loves this story a lot. He has not narrowed in on a favourite character yet so we have fun exploring all the lively characters in the book. Some days our house is filled with the Hyena cries whereas some other it is the lion that roars all around. Some special days we dance around for Hakuna Matata.

Finally would want to end this review with the message lion king passes on.

"Never forget who you are and become who you were always meant be!"
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