![]() The nub of the poem (which is simple, profound, and utterly lacking in schmaltz) is, “why don’t you, be you… / and I, will be I.” Beyond this universal sentiment, however, lies a timelier one. The other lions, stuck on the idea of fierceness, tell Leonard that they’ve heard he’s gentle and makes up poems, but befriending a duck instead of “chomping” her is going “ too far!” Leonard and Marianne wander off to their “thinking hill” to mull this over, and they come up with… a poem to share with the “fierce” lions. Instead he notices “the grass under his paws,” thinks up poems, and befriends Marianne, a duck. Leonard is a lion, and while he is aware that the general expectation of lions is to be fierce, he opts not to live up to it. ![]() ![]() ![]() A thoughtful lion decides whether he can be something other than fierce in this picture book. ![]()
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