Alex Latimer lives near the border of a national park so when not writing or drawing, he spends his free time shooing baboons out of his lounge. The Boy Who Cried Ninja is his first book for children. He lives in South Africa.
it is entirely coincidental that i am reviewing this book during this whole "goodreads inelegantly cracking down on bullies" situation.
i had no idea what this was about when i requested it from netgalley - i just saw a rabbit and knew i had to read it.
this book is about a lion who is a bully. not the kind of bully who helpfully points out that an author is attacking reviewers on a website, or has written something morally questionable. this book presents actual bullying, not consumer reporting.
and that's an important distinction.
because there are true bullies in the world, genuine menaces that can do more damage than simply pointing out that actions have consequences, that we live in a very small world, and that there will be tweeting.
here are some examples of bullying:
giving a buffalo a wedgie. stealing a hyena's lunch monkey. sticking a silly note on a zebra's back.
eventually, the animals get fed up with the bullying, but no one wants to take a stand. they are too afraid of the seemingly impervious lion, so big and so strong, and with such a loud roar. SO much sound and fury.
so they outsource. they band together and reach out for help from animals better equipped to bring down the bully, through a computer, of all things. many animals respond to the ad, but they all fail in different ways. the lion will not go down, no matter with what challenges he is presented.
but then one more animal picks up the gauntlet.
a tiny, and very adorable rabbit.
and despite being only just a humble little creature, he succeeds where others have failed, winning one challenge after another. small victories, but they add up, and eventually, the lion must concede, and agrees to stop bullying the other animals, who were just living their lives, doing what animals do, and did not deserve to be singled out for abuse or punishment.
i'm not going to tell you how this is achieved, because it is a delightful little surprise for the reader, suffice it to say that when dealing with an actual bullying situation, and not a justified reaction to poorly-considered behavior, a little rabbit will triumph by any means necessary.
This little picture book really has come at a perfect time. There's been a lot of people throwing around the term "bullying" lately when what they really mean is - as karen noted - "consumer reporting". Lion vs. Rabbit is about real bullying, not someone merely expressing a negative opinion or factually reporting the behaviour of others. Lion targets weaker animals than himself, sticks notes on their backs, steals their lunch monkey and all of this is because he enjoys using his power to upset and humiliate other animals.
Many brave animals try to take on Lion and defeat him in various challenges, hoping to put an end to the bullying. A bear, a moose and a tiger are all defeated by Lion's strength and agility. Then, along comes Rabbit. Rabbit is a cute, adorable little thing that can surely pose no threat to Lion, right? Wrong! In every challenge, Rabbit emerges victorious. And, after every challenge, Lion comes up with excuse after excuse as to why he was defeated and demands more challenges. But Rabbit, it seems, is invincible!
How can this tiny bunny rabbit defeat Lion? How is it possible? Well, that's something I'll let you find out for yourself. All I can say is: I LOVED it.
Wait, what? I mean, yes, bullies need to be stopped. And bear, moose, and tiger have it wrong; it's def. not right to stop them by beating them up. But rabbit's strategy isn't ethical either. And I don't know that lions, or bullies, are all that stupid, either.
Read and discuss this with your child.
Or, don't bother to read it, cuz the illustrations are, imo, workmanlike, and the story, imo, isn't all that clever anyway.
There has to be a better way to reach out to Bullies and Mean Girls. Something's wrong with us when almost all our books focus on the victims, and so very few on the kids who desperately need both compassion and lessons in citizenship!
ETA: just realized... no female characters, iirc.... :(
Lion bullies the other animals in this engaging picture-book from South African author/illustrator Alex Latimer, playing lots of mean tricks until finally everyone has had enough, asking Baboon to place an ad asking for help. Lots of strong creatures show up, from a bear to a tiger, but none have any luck defeating Lion. Then a tiny rabbit appears, and suggests a number of trials in which the leonine bully isn't triumphant. Has Lion met his match...?
An entertaining tale is paired with appealing artwork in Lion vs Rabbit, which offers a picture-book examination of such themes as bullying and the triumph of brain over brawn. The final portion of the tale has drawn some comparison to the classic Aesopic fable about the The Tortoise and the Hare, as the rabbit here once again outwits his opponent. This is the fourth book I have read from Alex Latimer, and like his others, it has great child appeal, I think. Recommended to anyone looking for picture-books about bullies and bullying, or about using one's smarts to outwit a physically stronger adversary.
In a humorous and engaging format with great illustrations, it was written for small children, who, as so often are exposed to bullying by siblings or schoolmates, will find the text easy to relate to.
I appreciated that both Lion's bullying and the attempts to resolve the conflicts were illustrated in a manner that were non-violent, but rather silly. Sometimes storybooks written about dealing with bullying have an edge of mean-ness to them that can be a trifle upsetting to read for little ones, but in Lion vs, Rabbit, Alex Latimer deals with the issue in an extremely gentle way.
A digital copy of this book was provided by the publisher for purposes of review.
Lucuuuuuuuuu~~~ <333 Singanya tukang bully hewan-hewan lain--dan bully-nya itu lucu: nempelin kertas ke punggung hewan lain, ngerebut makanan hewan lain, nakut-nakutin hewan yang lebih kecil terus ngetawain mereka, pokoknya tipe-tipe keisengan bocah deh! Terus perserikatan(?) hewan-hewan akhirnya bikin sayembara: siapa aja, tolong hentikan si singa yang udah kelewatan, pliiiiisss!!! Beruang dari Rusia kalah kuat di adu tinju, yang dari Afrika kalah adu anggar. Akhirnya datanglah kelinci, mulai dari lomba makan marshmallow, lomba lukis, lomba lompat, sampai lomba lari. Dan... pemenangnya udah ketebak: kelinci!!! Gimana bisa? Ada curang rahasianya deh xDD
Fantastic book all round, and not just for its anti-bullying stance. It's also got a nice mystery that my brother figured out before me(hmph!) and the creativity, too! Tigers arriving on flying carpets and moose in rockets! Ooh, I just loved it. The itty-bitty parts and the scared victims.
Imma be keeping it for the next 60 days until it expires.
The other critters want to put an end to his antics, and so a reward of 100 bucks (mostly gazelle) is offered to any creature who can stop lion's nasty bullying.
There's quite a funny end to this "trickster tale," and the many silly contests should keep young readers and listeners in stitches.
In Africa, their was an incredibly mean Lion who bullied all the animals in Africa. They tried hard to make him stop but this was not enough. They called back up. A lovely story about bullying and kindness to others.
Interesting tale. Lion is a bully and all the other animals are tired of this, so they put an ad in the newspaper asking for help. A Tiger, a Bear, and a Moose all try to beat Lion at a competition but they fail. The next animal to try is a Rabbit. He challenges Lion to a marshmallow eating contest, which the rabbit wins. Lion says that the challenge was unfair, so rabbit challenges him to some other competitions such as a quiz, and a painting contest, which Lion fails to beat Rabbit in as well. Finally, Rabbit tells Lion to come up with a competition and Lion challenges him to a mountain race. Rabbit beats him as well, even though Lion started running before someone said "go". Lion is deafeated and never bullies again. When Rabbit is returning home, the reader finds out how Rabbit was able to defeat Lion.
I loved the hidden hints to rabbit's success, which I didn't begin to notice until Rabbit and Lion were doing the mountain race. This book is great to have an open discussion about being a bully and about good sportsmanship.
Funny. Lion is mean to the other animals. So the animals advertise for someone to come and help get Lion to stop being a bully. Many animals arrive and try to beat lion at a variety of competitions---boxing, fencing, arm wrestling----but no one can beat him. Rabbit arrives and beats Lion at marshmallow-eating, answering quizzes, painting, and racing. Lion concedes that Rabbit beat him and begins to be nice to the other animals.
Rabbit actually beats Lion through trickery. And it doesn’t address the possible root causes of Lion being a bully. But it’s still a funny read.
Lion vs Rabbit by Alex Latimer – Love this twisted story that touches a little on the rabbit and the hare story. Cute story about a lion who was a bully who frustrated all the other animals so that they asked other animals to try to teach him a lesson. When Rabbit rises to the occasion, you never know might happen. Hilarious and a fantastic read aloud. I enjoyed having quite the lengthy discussions with students about what is fair, when is cheating acceptable, and how you stop a bully…
Lion vs. Rabbit was cute. The animals were fed up with the bully Lion and they were searching for a "savior" of some sort. They placed an advertisement wanting someone to 'beat" the lion in exchange for a reward. The bigger predator animals like bear, moose, and tiger tried but could not beat the Lion. And then a small and seemingly harmless rabbit announces he will beat the lion. Of course this seemed laughable to the king of the jungle so he even allows the rabbit to chose the challenges they are to compete in. To the surprise of everyone, including the lion he is beaten with every challenge. He was surprisingly a good sport after it and promised to stop his bullying since he was clearly defeated. As the animals said goodbye to the rabbit, they realized that there were more than one rabbit competing and that is the reason the lion was beaten. No one dared to tell the Lion the truth and everyone lived happily ever after. I like this story. It shows that even the small guy, when collectively working together can fight the "big guy". Although this idea of rabbits beating a predatory animal like a lion can't really happen in real life, it is a great idea to note that two or more heads are definitely better than one.
Lion is mean to every animal. Lion sticks a silly note to the back of Zibra and even steals lunch money from Hyena. Animals decide to post an advertisement to hire someone to make Lion stop bullying them, and a bear, a moose, and a tiger come to stop Lion from bullying other animals. But, Lion defeats them all. The last one to compete against Lion is a rabbit. Rabbit (a group of rabbits) wins the competitions and Lion no longer bullies friends.
In this story, the little creature beat the large predator. The illustration on the title page interestingly presents information on Lion and Rabbit like a card game format. The score of “mean-ness” of Lion was 9.9/10 and “brain” was 2/10 while the score of “mean-ness” of Rabbit was 1/10 and “brain” 9/10. That is, the title page implied that Rabbit would beat Lion by its brain. Readers could expect that Rabbit is not alone to compete against Lion. The illustrations throughout the series of competition between Lion and Rabbit showed hidden ears of a rabbit here and there. For instance, during the marshmallow-eating competition, a pair of ears are witnessed in the tall grass. Bright colors and artistic styles created a humorous and energetic mood of the story.
Nous avons emprunté à la bibliothèque Lion contre lapin. J’ai été surpris par la modernité et l’humour de ce livre destiné aux enfants. Il se trouve dans un registre qui n’est pas souvent utilisé pour ce public – on dirait un titre de la collection Humour de rire de chez Delcourt. L’humour justement, au travers des dessins et au travers du texte, peut aussi bien faire rire un adulte qu’un enfant. L’auteur a bien raison, il faut les considérer comme nos égaux sur ce point. Serait-ce un vent de fraîcheur qui souffle sur le livre jeunesse ?
Le lion est vraiment pénible, il embête tout le monde et personne n’est assez courageux pour le défier. Ils ont bien essayé de manifester, mais sans grand courage.
> Lion, arrête tout de suite ! (s’il te plaît)
Une nouvelle fable qui nous apprend une fois de plus que le plus fort n’est pas celui que l’on croit et que l’union fait la force – que d’espoir pour tout le monde.
When the animals have had enough of Lion's bullying behavior - he's mean to EVERYONE - they advertise for help. Several creatures respond - a Bear, a Moose, and a Tiger - but Lion beats them all. Just when he's about to return to his bullying ways, Rabbit arrives. Lion lets him choose their competitions - there are several, because Lion has all kinds of excuses for not winning any of them. Rabbit defeats him at a marshmallow-eating-competition, a quiz competition, a hopping competition, a painting competition, and then, finally, in a race to the top of a mountain. Lion finally gives up and admits Rabbit has defeated him and changes his bullying ways. Rabbit - actually MANY rabbits - receives his reward (100 bucks - mostly gazelles) and sails away on a big boat. Lion is never the wiser. This silly trickster tale will appeal to kids and adults. Wouldn't it be nice if all bullies could see the error of their ways?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
A fable-ish sort of tale about animals standing up to a bully (Lion). It's an interesting one to talk about because Lion is mean and a bully, and when standing up to him asking nicely doesn't work, standing up to him by force doesn't work, so Rabbit tackles things by cleverness, and rather sneakily at that. So is Rabbit in the right or wrong? It's along the lines of trickster tales from older myths and legends - do the ends always justify the means?
There were some clever moments in it, and definitely some funny details in the pictures, but other parts of the illustrations were a little simple? Maybe just not my taste in art. Either way, not enough to bump it up from 3+ to 4.
Could use it in a storytime on friends, manners, or bullying, or on animals (especially, obviously, lions or rabbits). Or for older students, as a comparison to older trickster tales - compare to Anansi or Raven stories, maybe? Could make for a fun language arts lesson.
Fables are usually fun, and when done well a story with a clear message or morale is a good read. I have mixed feelings about this one. The Lion is a bully. The other animals try to stop him by beating him at his own game - with no success. Eventually rabbit shows up and uses his wits to defeat Lion. Although, he doesn't quite do it ethically. Does that matter? Maybe, maybe not. The bullying stopped.... This book is a good conversation starter about bullies, and how to overcome then.
Lion is quite a bully and everyone is afraid to confront him. The other animals advertise for someone to help them. Several come - Bear, Moose, Tiger - but Lion defeats them all. One more animal comes - Rabbit. He defeats Lion in several contests including running up the mountain. Lion agrees to treat others better. The animals discover that Rabbit was able to win as there were actually 10 of them working together. Use to talk about bullying and problem solving.
Lion is a big bully, but all the other animals are too afraid of him to stop him so they put out an ad offering a reward for anyone who can stop Lion. Bear, Moose, and Tiger all come but are unsuccessful. Eventually Rabbit shows up and uses his brains (and a few tricks) to beat Lion. While I'm not necessarily a fan of tricking bullies, the story is humorous and the illustrations are fun. I think my story time kids will enjoy this one, a fun group read aloud.
Think of this as a David and Goliath story, only David's part is played by wily little Rabit, while that bully Goliath is played by the fearsome lion.
Possibly this victory is accomplished by trickery. But for some readers the triumph is what counts, and a bully deserves defeat by any means necessary.
No, this story is not to my taste. But in honor of the likely readership, I believe "Lion vs. Rabbit" deserves FIVE STARS.
A fantastic story with a twist that tackles bullying, good for KS1. A bully lion goes around upsetting people; it's full of humour - such as a "lunch monkey" being taken. They enlist the help of varies heroes from other countries, but a rabbit saves the day. It reminds me of traditional stories I was told, of rabbits out smarting lions.
This is a good story to read aloud to your class or at home with your own readers. The story talks about dealing with a bully. And while this did take on a light hearted tone, it’s message could be found if you talk the kids through it. Plus the book is kind of fun to read even if you are just reading it based on the story alone.
I suppose this can affirm the importance of teamwork, but it does that by deception, where "teamwork" would have been better served by the bullied animals working together. There are still some fun puns and a great picture of a lion helping an elderly antelope with groceries.
Lion is a bully, and the other animals can't get him to stop. The animals they import to help also fail until the rabbit shows up. There is a fun twist at the end. Seems basic, but there could be a takeaway about the power of working together.