How To Be A Lion by Ed Vere
Published by Doubleday Books for Young Readers on June 26th 2018
ISBN: 0525578056
Pages: 32
Goodreads

Leonard the lion is not your average lion.  Instead of being fierce and chomping things like the rest of the lions, he likes to writes poems and visit his thinking hill. One day he meets a duck named Marianne and she helps him write his poem, and they become friends.  They spend all their time together watching stars and being happy.  Until one day when the rest of the lions show up and demand to know why this duck has not been chomped.  Leonard defends her, but the other lions tell Leonard that there is only one way to be a lion and that he must be fierce and chomp her.  Leonard and Marianne return to the thinking hill while Leonard ponders whether he must truly change.  They return to the other lions with a message about being yourself.  A pretty heavy-handed message picture book, Vere delivers a story about being yourself and not caving to peer pressure.  Other reviewers have read it as a take on masculinity and an example of a positive male role model.

Reviewed by Kara Reiman, Walker Memorial Library, Westbrook