A fresh retelling of one of the most popular Aesop’s fables. … The art was created digitally and features bright, vibrant colors, and each page, including the cover, has die-cut holes and peek-through windows of different shapes and sizes to heighten readers’ curiosity. … The book is heartwarming and touching–especially when the mouse rescues the lion in the end, and children will find it accessible. This edition is certain to delight readers and listeners with a valuable life lesson. It would be ideal for storytimes involving the themes of courage, friendship, and compassion.
—School Library Journal
This adaptation of Aesop’s tale gets new life from a slight change in the original storyline and clever paper engineering. … The altered story makes for a far more compassionate lion, who never threatens to eat the mouse and in fact empathizes with her. The real draw, though, is the art, wherein die-cut holes redeploy illustrative elements (the spot on a butterfly’s wing is later revealed to be the lion’s eye) and a pierced partial-page flap constitutes the net and allows little hands to play the role of liberator by lifting the page. The digitally rendered images have a collage-like joy in texture and planes of color to enliven their graphic simplicity… This is a strong addition to the fables shelf that will provide plenty of visual and tactile stimulation for young viewers.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
