LION NEEDS A HAIRCUT

A cub uses some reverse psychology on his father…but gets a haircut anyway.

From the first spread, what will strike most readers is the father lion’s seemingly over-the-top anger directed at his cub. The two are at dinner, dad’s fist coming down so hard on the tabletop that his plate tilts and his drink sloshes: “You need a haircut.” Unperturbed, the cub slurps up the spaghetti. “No, I don’t.” Dad’s anger continues on the next page, where the duo shares the couch. While the lion’s words try to be reassuring, his scowl is not. On the third spread, dad finally tries to get at the heart of the matter and looks pleasant while shampooing the cub’s hair and reassuring the child that there’s nothing to be scared of. But things devolve again to a (literal) roaring match and, ultimately, the cub’s sad admission: “I just wanted my hair to look like yours.” From there, the cub uses the same tactics his father did to convince him that he also needs a trim (a reference to the lion’s mane as mustache and beard may puzzle literal-minded readers). Troublingly, “Are you scared?” is used tauntingly, and the interaction reinforces the notion that fear and worry are shameful. But most discomfiting is the anger that visibly radiates from the father in too many of the colored-pencil spreads. 

This dad needs to learn to pick his battles and control his anger.