Little Lion

One day, Dad comes home with a lion. “Brought you a dog,” says Dad. Mum and the children don't believe him, but they call it Dog, let it sleep in the dog basket, and keep quiet about their strange, noisy pet. But Big Jonno, the school bully, is curious, and tries to make life tough, until one day, the worst thing happens — the Lion escapes and finds Big Jonno.

This delightfully surreal story by a multi-award-winning author and talented illustrator — in which a bully gets his just deserts — will keep young readers guessing all the way through!

The inspiration for this story came from the Bleek-Lloyd collection of stories written down by the linguists Wilhelm Bleek, his daughter Jemima and his sister-in-law Lucy Lloyd when they were recording the language and stories of the |Xam* people of the Northern Cape in South Africa.
The original story doesn't have a middle or an end, but it has a very funny beginning when a man brings a lion home and tells his wife it's a dog.
* The | represents a ‘click' sound.

Lesley Beake is a multi-award-winning writer for children and young adults. Her international awards include, for Song of Be, a Children's Book of Note and the Best Book for Young Adults by the ALA. Outside South Africa her books have been published in ten countries. Her first book for Frances Lincoln was the highly-acclaimed picture book Home Now, illustrated by Karin Littlewood. She lives in Simon's Town, near Cape Town, South Africa.
Erika Pal was born in Budapest, Hungary. She came to England and took a BA in Animation and Illustration at Kingston University. Since then she has worked as a bookseller, assistant animator, potter, actress, babysitter, chef and libretto translator. Twice highly commended for the Macmillan Prize, she designed the winning logo for the Big Picture campaign and is a member of the East London Printmakers. Her first book for Frances Lincoln was Azad's Camel, followed by I See the Moon. She lives in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, U.K.