A Lion in Paris

by Beatrice Alemagna

Overview

A Lion in Paris is widely regarded as the most accomplished book by multi-award-winning children’s author/illustrator Beatrice Alemagna. It tells the story of a lion who, bored by his rural life in the savanna, seeks excitement and opportunity in the City of Light. Upon arriving in Paris, the lion is disappointed to find that despite his size, people barely pay attention to him, not even when he lets out a ferocious roar on the busy underground Métro.
Revealing the sights and sounds of Paris from Montmartre to the Eiffel Tower, this beautifully illustrated book successfully conveys the experience of being a stranger in a new city and the process of understanding one’s own identity.

Praise for A Lion in Paris
STARRED REVIEW
"This oversized book about a bored young lion who visits Paris to find “a job, love and a future” is worth every bit of paper and ink. The lion atop the Eiffel Tower, mane blowing in the wind, captures the essence of this artful, whimsical delight."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"By the time he decides to settle in the City of Lights, readers will be thoroughly charmed by both the lion and his creator."
—Publishers Weekly

"Ms. Alemagna's illustrations are made up of drawings, colored cutouts and bits of photography—an increasingly popular approach known as mixed-media collage—and she is playful with perspective. The effect is both mesmerizing and warming as we follow the great beast around the City of Light."
—The Wall Street Journal

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781849761710
Publisher:	Tate Publishing & Enterprises, L.L.C.
Publication date:	04/15/2014
Edition description:	Translatio
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	11.10(w) x 15.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Beatrice Alemagna is the author and illustrator of over 30 books for children, including What is a Child? and A Lion in Paris. Her books have been translated into twelve languages, and four were nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, among many other awards. In 2017, her picture book On A Magical Do-Nothing Day was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year and was recognized with a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators. She is from Bologna, Italy and lives in Paris, France.

Editorial Reviews

01/13/2014
The majestic trim size and vertically oriented format of Alemagna’s tribute to Paris command attention, and so do her solemnly quirky drawings of a lion drinking espresso and puzzling over baguettes (“a strange kind of sword,” he thinks). Eager for adventure, he arrives at the Gare de Lyon (“Naturally it was a little scary”) and sets out to explore. Alemagna (The Bug Next Door) populates the city with comic, cutout faces from old magazines and naïf-style penciled figures; her spreads have a Rousseaulike innocence. The famed unflappability of Parisians extends even to lions: “The lion waited to see if he would terrify anyone. He wondered if people would start screaming.” Far from it, cafe patrons don’t even notice him. Yet Paris grows on him. “At last a girl noticed him and her eyes followed him for a while with a loving, tender look.” (He’s in the Louvre, and the girl is the Mona Lisa.) By the time he decides to settle in the City of Lights, readers will be thoroughly charmed by both the lion and his creator. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

04/01/2014
K-Gr 2—A lion, unhappy with his life, sets off to find "a job, love, and a future." He arrives at a Paris train station, expecting to be met with fear and even violence, but instead he is virtually ignored: "More than anything, the lion liked to be noticed." After some existential sadness in the rain, he starts to enjoy the sights of the city. Finally, he discovers an empty plinth at a crossroads, climbs up on it, and decides to stay there and become a Parisian landmark. There are only one or two short sentences per page, and there is little continuity from one spread to the next, making the story seem disjointed. The mixed-media illustrations include photographs, detailed drawings, and loosely sketched figures that play with scale to create a surreal world with a beige and orange color scheme. Perspective is flattened, causing objects to appear piled on top of one another. The pages are meant to be turned upward like a wall calendar, making it best for one-on-one reading, especially because of the large trim size. This story about finding where you are appreciated in the world will be more at home on coffee tables and in museum gift shops than at bedtime.—Anna Haase Krueger, Ramsey County Library, MN

School Library Journal

★ 2014-01-09
This oversized book about a bored young lion who visits Paris to find "a job, love and a future" is worth every bit of paper and ink. The book opens vertically, with sparse, large-type text on each top page and complex artwork below. The sturdiness of the paper allows young hands to turn pages repeatedly and to pore over each carefully rendered illustration, a lion's share of mixed media that includes architectural renderings of Parisian hot spots, tiny photographs of people and, on every page, the large protagonist, sporting a huge bushlike mane and a great variety of engagingly human expressions. As the lion roams Paris, he is unhappy about the lack of attention he draws, even when he roars. He hits rock bottom when a rainstorm turns him "grey and shiny like the roofs around him." But urban apathy eventually subsides, and love comes in the form of a young girl's adoring eyes, which follow him. (Only the youngest of viewers will lose the joke: That lover is the Mona Lisa.) The lion soon finds his job and his future, with vocabulary that refuses to condescend: A plinth in the middle of a square offers him his perfect vocation. Children will feel more sophisticated than the lion, who makes such mistakes as confusing baguettes with swords. The lion atop the Eiffel Tower, mane blowing in the wind, captures the essence of this artful, whimsical delight. (Picture book. 3-8)

Kirkus Reviews