Book review: The Lion in Our Living Room

REVIEWED BY MATILDA, 11, WA

The Lion in our Living Room by Emma Middleton, ill. Briony Stewart, Affirm Press, ISBN 9781925584226

Matilda reviews her own copy of this book.

Tom and Tilly want to play lion games with their dad. The story is told poetically — it rhymes and it’s very rhythmical. The phrasing allows you to use lots of expression so it’s good to read out loud, like this:

Will he come? Won’t he come? Will he come and play?
Will the mighty lion come and play with us today?

The illustrations are by Briony Stewart who has written and illustrated other books like the Kumiko series and The Red Wheelbarrow. The illustrations are done in colour pencils and I like how you can see the pencil strokes because you can see that it’s not computer done. I was lucky to meet Briony Stewart at the Fremantle book launch, where there were also fun activities related to the book like making lion masks, lion face painting, and making paper lions.

This picture book will be great for kids aged 6 and under who love playing and being imaginative.

Matilda is one of our regular book reviewers. You can read Matilda’s other reviews here. If YOU would like to send us a book review, check out our submission guidelines. Happy reading!