Willoughby and the Lion – A Small for Big Book Review

by Chris

Willoughby and the Lion
Today’s Post is doing double duty! You can also see it over at BookDads.

Don’t tell my boys, but when it comes to children’s books, I don’t hesitate to judge them by their covers. So much of the enjoyment of a great children’s book, for both my kids and myself, comes as much from the imagery as it does from the words. That, combined with the overplus of picture books available, keeps me from giving any book without a stellar cover more than a passing glance.

That’s why, during our last trip to the library, Willoughby and the Lion by Greg Foley came home with us. The square of black and white with the huge, embossed gold medallion in the center is stunning and caught my eye immediately. I pulled it off the shelf while the boys entertained themselves with LEGO in the play area, and slipped it into our book bag to be checked out with all of our other finds.

Later that evening, after the boys were stripped down to their summer PJ requisite of skivvies and a freshly-brushed smile, we set in to read books. Willoughby and the Lion was the first up.

On the copyright pages we see moving boxes and a moving truck. Flip. On the dedication pages we see the moving truck en route. Flip. The story begins with a stark white spread, barren save for Foley’s simple, yet skilled, line drawings of Willoughby Smith, his tiny new house, and a big rock. We learn Willoughby hates his new house and hates being so far from his friends

One day, shortly after moving in, Willoughby looks up from his tooth-brushing and out of the bathroom window to see a gorgeous golden lion sitting on top of the rock. When he confronts the lion, the lion tells him that he can grant him 10 wishes. However, the lion misses his home and his friends too, and informs Willoughby that unless he wishes for the most wonderful thing of all, the lion will be stuck on the rock forever. Willoughby barely makes note of the caveat and immediately wishes for a bigger house. Before he can even turn around, Willoughby’s tiny house is replaced by a golden palace so enormous even Queen Elizabeth would be in awe. Thereafter Willoughby’s wishes are as grandiose as they are selfish, and each comes with its own number that designates it’s order. He wishes for a roller coaster (2), and friends to ride it with him (3). He wishes for the fastest running shoes in the world (4); then wishes for a pair that’s even faster (5). He wishes for a hot-air-balloon-submarine with escape helicopter, and towers of cakes, and X-ray glasses, and books full of homework answers (6, 7, 8, and 9).

With only a single wish remaining, Willoughby finds the lion despondent on his rock under the roller coaster. When he asks the lion why he’s so depressed, the lion reiterates that he misses his friends and wishes he could be home running freely with all of the other lions. At this, Willoughby realizes how selfish he’s been and spends the rest of the evening trying to cheer the lion up. They sing songs and tell jokes and talk about Willoughby’s old house and practice roaring. Finally they are both exhausted and each curls up by the other to get some rest. Willoughby then, after the lion falls asleep, whispers his final wish into the lion’s ear and swiftly falls asleep himself.

In the morning when he awakens, Willoughby notices his first nine wishes have disappeared, as well as the lion himself. In the lion’s place on the rock is a solitary golden coin with the number 10 and two words: True Friend.

Willoughby and the Lion is such a beautiful book, both in words and in pictures. The story invigorates the imagination – prompting questions like, “What would you wish for?” and “How can you have shoes that are faster than the fastest shoes in the world?” – and concludes with a heart-warming ending. The artwork is both simple and unique and builds slowly throughout the book. At the beginning Foley uses plain black lines on a white background, but slowly adds metallic gold ink to depict the lion and the wishes and the huge, inevitable crowd that forms outside Willoughby’s palace. A majority of the wishes themselves deviate from simplistic illustrations to highly detailed images that add a welcome depth to the pages. While I love the story, I feel that this may be the first children’s book where I enjoyed the artwork even more.

Every once in a while we happen upon a real gem while browsing at the library, and Willoughby and the Lion definitely gets classified as a gem in this house. What’s more is that Greg Foley is fairly new to the children’s book scene, and I’m glad I found him early in his career. Just this spring he released a second Willoughby book, called Willoughby and the Moon, and I already have it on hold at our library. Judging a book by it’s cover has rarely left me disappointed and Willoughby and the Lion is no exception.

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