The Books
The Good Lion
Hardcover, 32 pages
Published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (2005-09-26)
List Price: $16.00
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Amazon Description
My father and I settled in Africa in 1906. . . . And it was there, as a small girl, I was eaten by a lion.
So begins a true story from aviatrix Beryl Markham’s autobiography. Here young Beryl and a tame” lion called Paddy come together in an encounter that challenges our notions of wild and docile, trust and duplicity, punishment and forgiveness. Coupled with Don Brown’s expressive watercolors, The Good Lion is a powerful story that will leave readers wondering about the true natures of man and beast.
So begins a true story from aviatrix Beryl Markham’s autobiography. Here young Beryl and a tame” lion called Paddy come together in an encounter that challenges our notions of wild and docile, trust and duplicity, punishment and forgiveness. Coupled with Don Brown’s expressive watercolors, The Good Lion is a powerful story that will leave readers wondering about the true natures of man and beast.
One Potato Review
Reader beware - and rejoice! This does not end with a lion and a youthful Beryl Markham skipping arm in arm into the bushes over a Jack Johnson soundtrack. The Good Lion in this case actually refers to a passively domesticated predator who loses his mind for just a second - or suddenly remembers who he is - and pays for his transgression with a lifetime of staring (peacefully? regretfully? inevitably?) from behind bars. Because this is human law now, and human country, which Markham (sounding a little like Isak Dinesen here) describes with an ardor that is deeply, ambivalently felt.
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