If I Were a Lion - Hardcover

Weeks, Sarah

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689848366 ISBN 13: 9780689848360

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2004

Synopsis

I'm sitting in the time-out chair because my mother put me there. She said, "You try my patience, child! I do not like it when you're wild."
Wild?
Who me?
That is so absurd.
How could she even use that word?
If I were a lion.
I'd growl and roar
And knock the dishes on the floor...
AND if I were a bear...
If I Were a Lion is a book for every child who's ever been sent to the time-out chair -- unjustly...or otherwise!

About this title

Review:

How could such a sweet little red-haired girl's mother accuse her of being wild? Worse still, how could she possibly make her sit in the time-out chair? That's precisely what this little girl wonders as she sits in the chair and lets her imagination (but not her manners, no way!) run wild: "If I were a lion,/ I'd growl and roar/ and knock the dishes/ on the floor./ I'd scare the hair/ right off the cat,/ but do you see me doing that?" Heather M. Solomon, also the illustrator of Clever Beatrice, captures the wildness in the little girl's mind in fantastic watercolor and gouache paintings. In the "growl and roar" spread, a ferocious lion is standing on two legs, open-jawed, in the ultra-artsy kitchen, breaking the dishes as the little girl looks on, wide-eyed and innocent. "Wild has feathers./ Wild has scales./ Wild has whiskers, tusks, and tails," she insists, surrounded by a made-up menagerie of owls, parrots, toucans, Old World chameleons, horned toads, snakes, walruses, seals, and fish in a bucket. We all know she protests too much: the title page reveals exhibit A--a childlike lion picture scrawled on the wall and a knocked-over cereal box. (Preschool to age 6) --Karin Snelson

About the Author:

Sarah Weeks has written many books for children, including If I Were a Lion, Paper Parade, Angel Face, So B. It, and Two eggs, please. She lives in New York City. When Sarah can't get to sleep, she goes through the alphabet in her head, trying to think of people she knew in elementary school whose names begin with each letter.

Heather M. Solomon was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start for Clever Beatrice, winner of the Charlotte Zolotow Award. She is also the illustrator of Clever Beatrice and the Best Little Pony by Margaret Willey and If I Were a Lion by Sarah Weeks. She lives in New Mexico with her husband, daughter, and son, who especially love to share joyous secrets.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0689848366
• ISBN 13: 9780689848360
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Solomon Heather M.