The Lion and the Mouse

Pinkney, J.  (2010).  The Lion and the Mouse.  New York: Little Brown Co.

This book won the Caldecott Medal in 2010.

Exposition:  The main characters are a timid little field mouse and a very large lion who live on the Savannah of Africa.

Conflict:  The very small field mouse has many enemies wanting to eat him but his largest enemy is the lion.

Rising Action:  At a strategic point in the story, the lion catches the mouse but the lion decides he is not very hungry.  On impulse the lion sets the mouse free.

Climax:  Later the lion is snared in a net and cannot get free.  He roars very loudly and the mouse hears his plea for help.

Falling Action:  The small mouse comes to the lions rescue and chews the ropes on the net allowing the lion to fall to the ground free yet again.  As a result of his actions earlier, the lion is spared capture by the tiny little morsel that would not have sated his voracious appetite.

Resolution:  The resolution of the story is also a moral.  Do not bite the mouse that can save you.

Jerry Pinkney has been one of my favorite illustrators for a very long time.  Caldecott Books are widely known for their excellence in illustrations and the book rightly deserves the award.  The book was very cleverly and carefully drawn to show each frame of the story sequentially, tracing the antics of the mouse up to and including his capture by the lion and continues through the “pay it forward” by the mouse.

The book has a lot of imagery to show how the mouse must cover a lot of ground to get from one place to another and the lion can get there very quickly.