Watch Out For The Lion!, fear not the young kids who want this book

Watch Out For The Lion! Is the brother from another mother to The Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover. It’s a trick that will cause young readers will lean forward as books like this are being read to them. The page shows a yellow tail with a bob of tan fur at its end, surely this is the lion that the book warned readers about. This is the fun, breathless sort of book that runs with energy when the reader and the crowd are synchronized.

Having said that, it’ll be a very easy sell for ages three to seven to get behind Watch Out For The Lion!. The pages are loaded with bright, engaging colors and handle the animal parts with enough plausible mystery so that kids will feign not knowing what’s going to happen. Of course, they know what’s going to happen when they turn the page. The fangs won’t belong to a lion, but who will they belong to?

When the animal’s attribute is being set up the pages are corner-to-corner full color. Then, when the actual animal is revealed, like the sloth that has claws that could resemble the lion, the pages open up more white space. This allows the tension that the previous pages have built up to naturally subside, before building it up again on the next two pages. Illustrated books like this do a great job of creating fun tension that young audiences can’t get enough of.

The narrator is trying their best to scare readers, but each animal fails to be the big monster that they’re setting it up to be-and that’s the fun of it. Watch Out For The Lion! ends in a manner that you’re not expecting, but will keep those small audience members grinning from ear to ear. They’ll say that they knew what each animal was when it was first teased and then borrow the book when they’re alone to look at the art by themselves. And that’s the point of books like this, isn’t it? If you can get kids to enjoy the book then getting them to want to read will just take practice, and for a brief period in pre-k or kindergarten ages, this book will be their best friend.

Watch Out For The Lion! is by Brooke Hartman with illustrations by Anna SuBbauer and is available on Page Street Kids, an imprint of Page Street Publishing.

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