The Butterfly Lion

Product Information

This emotional novel tells the story of a lonely boy who runs away from boarding school and befriends an old lady who tells him an incredible story of friendship between a boy who was lonely like himself, until he adopted a white lion cub on his farm in Africa. How the story of the two ends, how the old woman comes to know of it, and how all of it ties back into WW1, you'll have to discover for yourselves. This sculpted lion thus shimmers and appears to breathe and becomes a beautiful memorial to love and fidelity and friendship encouraging, in the fullest sense of that word, the young school boy to go back to the place he fled. We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic.

I bought it to complete a Goodreads challenge but after looking at it several times as I was browsing my bookshelf I was reluctant to read it. It was an amazing story because it showed how important and special a promise can be and how awful loneliness must be and how friendship can overcome it. I feel that this book is very effective in introducing the serious emotions that children may experience. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. As a boy, Bertie had found an orphaned white lion cub, but was eventually forced to send the lion away to the circus and leave South Africa to attend boarding school in Wiltshire, England.It takes you on a rich journey of adventure,loneliness,loss,sadness,hope,love,friendship,determination and joy. I can see why they opted to also tell this story on stage, it has all the hallmarks of a great story that appeals to people of all ages. This book is suitable for key stage 2 children as, whilst the language in the book is simple and the story is uncomplicated, I feel that the emotions that Bertie experiences can be better understand by slightly older children. I felt that it would be particularly beneficial if the children could experience the audiobook version.

I bought this book for my nine year old granddaughter after she had read Kensukes Kingdom from the school library. He was a loving, kind and gentle creature although he was a lion and he was an extremely beautiful animal. e For Berite looking out into the African bush and seeing the tiger for the very first time or his first night alone in the boarding school so very far away from anything he was familiar with.She enjoyed this book very much and had read parts of it to me explaining the story as we went along. Bertie swears that one day they will see one another again, but the butterfly lion ensures that their friendship will never be forgotten. He has written more than 150 novels and won many prizes, including the Smarties Prize, the Whitbread Award and the Blue Peter Book Award, while several of his books have been adapted for stage and screen, including the global theatrical phenomenon War Horse. Sweeping across decades and continents, the butterfly lion provides a combination of love stories, a boy and his lion; a boy and a girl; a man and a woman. Then the first world war rears its ugly head and the boy now a man has to go and fight in France, Does he remember his vow to the lion ?

We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. This is a book which I found in the library corner of my year 2 class and as an animal lover it really appealed to me. I think it is important to be reminded about how special animals can be to humans when human over-population threatens their habitat and makes so many wild animas endangered. A lyrical and moving tale of a young boy growing up in Africa, and his lifelong friendship with a white lion. The character of the boy mirrors that of the husband Bertie as they both run way and have to deal with loneliness.I add my voice to the majority of commentators who rate this book highly for children of all ages, even into their old age! The book, I was happy to discover, takes its time showing us Bertie's life in Africa, how lonely he was, and then how his friendship with the lion blossomed and he learned about companionship. Later, when fighting in France in the First World War, he saves two men's lives and is given a Victoria Cross.