The Lion Inside is a picture book we keep buying copies of. We like sending it, and we like reading it.
Here is what happens. A very small mouse lives in a corner of a rock. At the top of the rock, a lion lives. The mouse is nobody and the lion is everybody. The mouse climbs up to ask the lion how to roar like him. The lion, surprised, is frightened of the mouse. The mouse is surprised in turn. They agree to be friends.
That is a simple shape. Rachel Bright’s rhymes give it rhythm, and Jim Field’s illustrations give it wit. Field draws the mouse’s courage as physical; the lion’s fear as reasonable. It is a book about courage that does not lecture you about courage.
This was the first book Bright and Field made together. They have done a lot since, and the later ones are good too, but this one is the one we keep reaching for when we pack a Year 1 class set. The pairing found its register the first time they tried it.