EDUCATION EXTRA.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Library Lion

By Michelle Knudsen; illustrations by Kevin Hawkes

Candlewick Press, 2006

Ages 4 to 8

"One day, a lion came to the library." And so begins this charming story of a lion who enters the hallowed halls of a library and proceeds to stir things up.

Miss Merriweather, the head librarian, lets him stay because he is not breaking any of the proverbial library rules: no running, no loud talking, you know the rest.

Then, at story hour, the lion begins to roar. Of course, what he really wants is to hear more stories. The children beg the librarian to let him stay, but he has to agree to be quiet, which he does.

Every day the lion returns at story hour. The children love him, he makes himself useful in a variety of endearing ways, and everyone is happy - until Miss Merriweather takes a bad tumble and the lion comes to her rescue. In so doing, he must break some of the rules with the obvious lesson being that sometimes it is both appropriate and necessary to break rules. Although the book's message is a bit transparent from the start, kids will love the way the lion becomes a permanent and valuable resident of the library.

If you were a child in the '50s, the pictures in this book will take you down memory lane. Fortunately, they still appeal to young readers today. I read this story to a very active group of 33 first-graders and every eye was glued to the pages - a great recommendation for any book. It has become one of my new favorites.

- Sheila Low, librarian, Riverbend Elementary School