The Butterfly Lion

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This sculpted lion thus shimmers and appears to breathe and becomes a beautiful memorial to love and fidelity and friendship encouraging, in the fullest sense of that word, the young school boy to go back to the place he fled. The book, I was happy to discover, takes its time showing us Bertie's life in Africa, how lonely he was, and then how his friendship with the lion blossomed and he learned about companionship. Morpurgo does not tend to shy away from life's truths, including sadness, loss and grief; therefore, one always has a sense of apprehension as to what might happen next to the main protagonists.

The story is that of a boy, Michael, running away from boarding school and meeting an old woman who tells him of another young boy, Bertie, who had once done the same. The story is about a young boy who grows up in Africa and rescues a White lion, they grow up together and one day the bonds are broken when the boy has to go away to boarding school and the lion is sold. Morpurgo is really good at telling stories of friendships between children and animals, often while also telling of war. After the success of War Horse my local theatre had an upcoming production of this Morpurgo classic.for example,not greiving at your father's death because you 'didn't know him well enough to love him' and like how the white lion almost instantly recognized his master at once, after all those years .

Michael is good at using his imagination thats why I like his books but out of all the books he's written The Butterfly lion is the best. How the story of the two ends, how the old woman comes to know of it, and how all of it ties back into WW1, you'll have to discover for yourselves. The character of the boy mirrors that of the husband Bertie as they both run way and have to deal with loneliness.They have a wonderful companionship but things take a turn for the worst when Bertie is sent to boarding school in England and his father sells the cub to a French circus owner. He has written more than 150 novels and won many prizes, including the Smarties Prize, the Whitbread Award and the Blue Peter Book Award, while several of his books have been adapted for stage and screen, including the global theatrical phenomenon War Horse. Morpurgo has never written a lovelier story and the simple drawings of Christian Birmingham, an illustrator i love, really grace the whole thing.