The Butterfly Lion

​I've had this book on my TBR shelf for a few months now. I bought it to complete a Goodreads challenge but after looking at it several times as I was browsing my bookshelf I was reluctant to read it. I'd briefly flicked through it after buying and noticed that a) it was very thin - around 125 pages and b) the writing was quite large. After looking through the blurb I noticed that this was a children's book. And my heart sank. It wasn't going to fulfil me, I thought; it won't be my type of thing. Well, lordy, how wrong I was! I loved it.Yes, it is for children and it is very basic in its writing style and all those things but the depth of story for such a short piece was fantastic and although it was a little far-fetched (rightly so; it is a children's book after all) I caught myself smiling throughout the hour it took me to complete.Will I recommend it? Absolutely. Children will love this. And if you're a big kid like me, you adults will too. Buy it for the kids and when they're asleep, read it yourself and marvel in this beautiful little story.

Michael 10yrs ran away from boarding school, running across some fields he meets an old lady who takes him to a very large house and gives him tea, the old lady told Michael a story of her husband Bertie from when he lived in Africa, Bertie was six, he would watch the wild animals come to drink at a water hole near the compound where he lived, Bertie was never allowed to leave the compound, he saw a lioness come down to drink with a white cub, his parents said there was no such thing,One day his father shot a lioness leaving the cub on his own, Bertie saw the cub with Hyenas trying to eat him, Bertie ran out of the compound screaming at the Hyenas, Berties mother helped him bring the cub inside, Bertie and the cub became great friends, a year later and Bertie was to go to school in England, he could not take the cub and his father wanted to sell it to a circus, the lion was sold, Bertie was sent to school, the old lady met Bertie when he ran away from school and they became great friends, war was coming and everything would change

I bought this book for my ten year old daughter as a Christmas present, but she became very upset in the beginning of the story (I was reading it for both kids at bedtime) and we decided together to put is down and find something more jolly to read:( It's not for 10 year olds, I think even grownups can struggle with it, but very moving story! I ended up reading it on my own in my lunch breaks at work.

This emotional novel tells the story of a lonely boy who runs away from boarding school and befriends an old lady who tells him an incredible story of friendship between a boy who was lonely like himself, until he adopted a white lion cub on his farm in Africa. His little white lion went with him everywhere, and at the end of each day they would watch the sun go down together. One night Bertie promised the lion that he would never leave him, but his promise was hard to keep when his parents insisted that he went to England to boarding school. Bertie tried to stop his Dad sending his lion to a circus in France, but it was no use.Many years later, Bertie was fighting for England in the Great War in France, when he saw a poster with a white lion on it advertising a nearby circus. He and his girlfriend managed to retrieve the lion and took him home to England. He had finally kept his promise, and his lion was free at last.The story is kept interesting by flipping from one generation to the next, and by setting it in different places. Bertie is the main character and is a lonely little boy who finds friendship in the company of a lion cub. He fought as a soldier, but became a real hero for keeping a special promise and for saving the lion from a life in a cage. His relationship with the lion was amazing and unusual, and showed how special a bond between animals and humans can be.Michael Morpurgo describes his characters' emotions very well which makes the story really come to life. My favourite character was probably Bertie, although I loved the lion best of all. He was a loving, kind and gentle creature although he was a lion and he was an extremely beautiful animal. I didn't much like Bertie's father, who was mean and awful and didn't seem to like the lion and judging from the story he didn't really seem to like Bertie much either. How awful to send your only child to boarding school on a different continent!I particularly liked the descriptions of the African settings, perhaps because my parents both grew up in Africa. It was an amazing story because it showed how important and special a promise can be and how awful loneliness must be and how friendship can overcome it. The book made me cry tears of sadness and tears of joy. I think it is important to be reminded about how special animals can be to humans when human over-population threatens their habitat and makes so many wild animas endangered.I would deeply recommend Michael Morpurgo's books, because his stories take you to different worlds that are really hard to leave behind when you finish the book. This book has a remarkable surprise ending that I don't want to spoil - read this book yourself! It is EPIC !!!

Loved this book as a child, so just had to buy it for my children! It’s suited for a younger reader, ideal for a 6/7 year old reader, as the font is enlarged slightly and it’s not too dense but still packs a great story! The story is uplifting and gives a real sense of nostalgia 🥰💕.It’s also perfect for bed time stories for kids of all ages :) hope everyone enjoys it as much as we did!