LOOK OUT, CUB!

A playful lion cub goes exploring in this lift-the-flap story.

After having no luck getting his dad or his sister to join in, the youngster decides to play on his own. He climbs a tree but finds getting down not quite as easy. His lioness mom comes to his rescue and suggests a safer game to try. The text, mainly composed of the lions’ dialogue, uses a large, blocky type that is arranged between photos of lions placed within painted, cartoon landscapes of sky blue and savanna browns and greens. The photos of the lions are the only attraction within these pages, and particularly droll is the image of the cub pouncing on his snarling father. The biggest problem are the flaps, which are unfinished brown cardboard on the verso, as they do not engage readers and actually impede the flow of the tale. On the page where the cub contemplates climbing the tree, the flap itself blocks the view of said tree and only reveals a bird flying off into the distance. While this offering was produced by National Geographic, the informational content presented here is slim to none.

Nothing to roar about.