Lionboy
(The Lionboy trilogy, Book 1)
Zizou Corder
Puffin
Fiction, YA Fantasy
***+
DESCRIPTION: Charlie has been able to speak Cat since he was a year old. Only his parents - and cats, of course - know of this gift, and for most of his childhood he has led an otherwise normal life... at least, as normal a life as a boy with two top-scientist parents, moving back and forth from his father's native Africa to his mother's homeland in England, can have. One day, he comes home from school to find his parents gone, kidnapped by someone he barely knows, acting on behalf of an unknown enemy. After giving his own abductor the slip, Charlie sets out to rescue his parents with the help of England's feline population. On the way, he ends up with a seagoing circus that happens to be heading to Paris (like his parents), a circus with acrobats, clowns, dancing horses, bike-riding monkeys... and six lions determined to escape to their homeland in Africa.
REVIEW: "Zizou" is actually a mother-daughter writing team. The book seems an odd mixture of high ideas and low writing at times, but on the whole it's a fairly well-paced story that only occasionally drags. It works on its own level; though many plot elements wouldn't stand up to deeper scrutiny, they were entertaining at the time I read them, and here and there I glimpsed shadows of deeper concepts. I liked that his parents had some part in the plot, as they dealt with their kidnappers and tried to work out why they were taken. Many young adult books put the adults so far in the background that they're little more than plot devices. They may not have always acted as an adult in a similar situation may have acted, but at least they were there. Several illustrations, maps, and musical scores were added, apparently for atmosphere, but they intruded on the text. I prefer such things as maps and music in easily-accessed but less-intrusive appendices. From the sample chapter of the sequel, it looks like several of Charlie's old friends (and enemies) will be following him into future books. I keep meaning to find the next one in the trilogy, but somehow it never ends up as a priority. Maybe someday...
You might also enjoy:
Eyewitness Handbook: Cats (David Alderton, Nonfiction - A guide to domestic cat breeds)
Eyewitness Books: Cat (Juliet Clutton-Brock, YA Nonfiction - The Eyewitness series examines cats)
Cat Scratch Fever (Tara K. Harper, Fiction - A woman on a distant planet shares a forbidden mental bond with the local wild cats)
Warriors: Into the Wild (Erin Hunter, YA Fiction - A houscat abandons his safe indoor life to live with the local clan of ferals)
The Wild Road (Gabriel King, Fiction - Tag the housecat is called to protect the King and Queen of Cats from a grave threat)
Guardian Cats and the Lost Books of Alexandria (Rahma Krambo, YA Fiction - A housecat must help defend a powerful book from evil forces)
Wolf Brother (Michelle Paver, YA Fiction - In prehistoric times, an orphaned boy and his wolf cub companion face an evil, demon-possessed bear)
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (Terry Pratchett, YA Fiction - A cat running a rat-plague con with co-conspirator rodents and a boy piper runs into a real problem)
The Five Ancestors: Tiger (Jeff Stone, YA Fiction - A kung-fu prodigy in ancient China bonds with a tiger cub)
Tailchaser's Song (Tad Williams, Fiction - A young tomcat and his kitten companion search for a lost friend and find an evil waiting to swallow all Catkind)
Return to Top of Page - Return to Book Review List
Return to Brightdreamer Books Home
Brightdreamer Books is created and maintained by TBW, a.k.a. "Brightdreamer."
E-mail: tbweber AT comcast DOT net. (Remove spaces, replace AT with "@" and DOT with "." - please put "Brightdreamer Books" in the subject line, or your e-mail may be deleted as
spam! Thank you!