Caring for Your Lion by Tammi Sauer and Troy Cummings

Congratulations on your new lion! 

We know you ordered a kitten, but 

we ran out of those. 

Luckily, a lion is practically the same 

thing!

Caring for your lion is easy. Just 

follow this handy guide.

The text above is a note taped to a large crate in the opening spread of Caring for Your Lion. You know you're in for some fun the moment you get to that line about a lion being virtually the same thing as a kitten. If you're not already smiling, you should be.

Caring for Your Lion is written in 14 steps. The first is to open the crate. And, there, standing at the front of the crate is a grinning lion. Seriously, if you weren't already smiling . . . just wait. Next, you're supposed to find the enclosed feather to keep handy "in case of emergency".

My favorite step is:

Step 3: Try very hard NOT to look like a zebra. Or a gazelle. Or a bunny. 

The little boy from the cover just happens to be wearing a T-shirt with the image of a bunny on it. Fortunately, he has a button-down shirt on top of it, which he quickly draws closed. If you're not smiling by this point, I think we can give up on you, but I can tell you that the feather is for tickling the inside of the lion if you accidentally get eaten or to tickle his nose if he reaches for the 12 pizzas you've ordered and inadvertently swallows the pizza delivery man, instead.

From building a gigantic litter box (while the lion happily relieves himself in the garden) to giving him space to run (oops, there goes the neighborhood) to finding that a lion can nap just about anywhere (kitties and patches of sunlight go hand in hand), Caring for Your Lion takes you step-by-step through lion ownership while giving you plenty to laugh about. In the end, the unnamed boy from the cover has discovered that a lion is the perfect pet for him, in spite of all the hassles, as he ends up curled up in bed with his oversized kitty.

Highly recommended - The combination of funny instructions and absolutely marvelous illustrations makes Caring for Your Lion a pure delight. I'm a big fan of author Tammi Sauer and always jump at the chance to review her books. Once again, she has come up with a winner. And, the illustrations honestly could not be more perfect. Someone send me a child to read this to!!!

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