There's a Lion in My Cornflakes

March 16, 2015
In this wry cautionary tale, Robinson (How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth) and Field introduce two brothers who make “a million trips to the supermarket” and spend a year’s allowance on cornflakes to collect 100 coupons from the cereal boxes. The prize they are sending away for: a free lion. They’re so keen on getting one that they don’t mind that their peeved mother makes them eat “nothing but cornflakes until they were all gone.” They do mind, though, when no lion arrives—and all the other kids in town are happily playing soccer, skateboarding, and picnicking with their lions. The cereal company, which has run out of lions, sends the two boys a bear, crocodile,
and gorilla, instead, and the resulting mayhem plays out hilariously in Field’s loopy digital illustrations. Unfolding through younger brother Eric’s don’t-make-the-same-mistake-I-did narration, the story proceeds leisurely, but the underlying message about the value of standing out from the crowd goes down easy thanks to all the over-the-top animal shenanigans. Ages 3–6.