Lions and Liars, by Kate Beasley, illustrated by Dan Santat

I came across Lions and Liars on social media (I stalk Dan Santat) and totally judged a book by its cover. The front cover illustration and the title completely won me over and it went straight on my To-Be-Read list. I mean look at it – who doesn’t want to read that book? The awesome thing is that the story and the quality of the writing totally met my expectations. It was a brilliant read.

Fredrick Fredrickson is learning that he lives in a world where some kids are lions, some kids are gazelles, and some kids are the flea that lives on butts of other animals. Obviously, for the sake of a funny, and worthwhile story, our protagonist fits into the latter category. In an interesting early twist, Fredrick learns that his closest friends aren’t really that friendly. He is then thrown into a situation where he can be somebody else, maybe even a lion.

This is a great story about learning who your real friends are, and how to be a real friend yourself. If a kid is really paying attention they might even see that Fredrick goes through some fairly serious and scary things, but he hangs on, tries again, acts, moves and overcomes. He learns his own capacity for resilience.

I’m not one for labeling a kid’s book as only for boys or girls, but I would highly recommend this one for boys as I think it does a great job exploring the relationship tween males have with one another. It highlights the feelings that boys may have about tricky friendships and might give a young man the words he needs to express his own experiences.