Scan barcode
A review by katykelly
Jim's Lion by Russell Hoban
4.0
This looks like a picture book, but the author's name indicates that this is one for older children.
The protagonist is in hospital, we aren't told exactly what is wrong, but find out that he's very sick, and needs an operation but that it's risky. A nurse talks to him about how she copes with problems, and the boy uses his own fantasy world to cope with his illness.
I read this thinking "how would I share this with a child?" - a lot of it isn't text but comic-like pictures with no words, with admittedly-clever themes that run into each other and tell a story of Jim starting off feeling scared of his 'lion', and eventually taming it and accepting his help to overcome pain and fear.
Some of it I really didn't know how to interpret, or how I would describe it to a reader, so I would recommend this for older children who can read it for themselves, or who can interpret theh pictures with less parental input, though I would want to read it alongside them.
The operation scene, which we see mostly through Jim's hallucations were quite moving, the ending touching.
It's a book that could be read over the course of a single bedtime, and would, like A Monster Calls, be a story that might be brought out to help a child cope with a hospital stay or illness.
One for slightly older children, I would say ages 7+
The protagonist is in hospital, we aren't told exactly what is wrong, but find out that he's very sick, and needs an operation but that it's risky. A nurse talks to him about how she copes with problems, and the boy uses his own fantasy world to cope with his illness.
I read this thinking "how would I share this with a child?" - a lot of it isn't text but comic-like pictures with no words, with admittedly-clever themes that run into each other and tell a story of Jim starting off feeling scared of his 'lion', and eventually taming it and accepting his help to overcome pain and fear.
Some of it I really didn't know how to interpret, or how I would describe it to a reader, so I would recommend this for older children who can read it for themselves, or who can interpret theh pictures with less parental input, though I would want to read it alongside them.
The operation scene, which we see mostly through Jim's hallucations were quite moving, the ending touching.
It's a book that could be read over the course of a single bedtime, and would, like A Monster Calls, be a story that might be brought out to help a child cope with a hospital stay or illness.
One for slightly older children, I would say ages 7+