2010 Caldecott Medal Winner

THE LION AND THE MOUSE by Jerry Pinkney

Glorious lion face on the front cover is of this book is just the first hint to the rich pictures in this nearly wordless retelling of Aesop's fable. Set in Africa's Serengeti plain, the crux of the story is a mouse who accidentally disturbs a sleeping lion is captured by the lion then unexpectedly released. When the lion is capture in a hunters net, the mouse returns to chew through the net, releasing the lion in return. It's a moral of one selfless act being rewarded by another selfless act.

Interestingly, the only words in this book are sounds, the screech of owls flying through the tree tops, the lion's roar when capture in the net and the squeaks of the mouse as she tells her little mice of her release. You can can almost hear her saying “You're never going to believe what happened to me today.” The only humans, the men who build the net that captures the lion, are shown with faces hidden and create there own noises as they build the net.

Jerry Pinkney, a five time recipient of both the Coretta Scott King award winner and Caldecott Honor, was long overdue for a the Caldecott Award. This book shows how Pinkney's talent can make words unnecessary. The wordless of this book lets the child and the adult story sharer (you can't call them readers) develop a dialogue about the story on their own and lends to the possibility of a bigger dialog between child and adult about the value of helping others without thought of personal gain.

Patricia Schroader
Children's Librarian