The Butterfly Lion

"All my life I'll think of you, I promise I will. I won't ever forget you."

A lyrical and moving tale of a young boy growing up in Africa, and his lifelong friendship with a white lion.

A lyrical and moving tale of a young boy growing up in Africa, and his lifelong friendship with a white lion.

Bertie rescues an orphaned lion cub from the African veld. They are inseparable until Bertie is sent to boarding school far away in England and the lion is sold to a circus. Bertie swears that one day they will see one another again, but it is the butterfly lion which ensures that their friendship will never be forgotten.

Read more FROM SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
Grade 4-8. Elements of fantasy and fiction are woven into this fast-paced adventure. A student runs away from boarding school and meets an elderly lady, whom he later discovers is a ghost. She tells the story of another boy, Bertie, who grew up long ago in Africa and eventually became her husband. Lonely and neglected by his parents, he rescues an abandoned white lion cub and cares for it, gradually forming a close bond. After some years the boy's parents abruptly decide to send him to school in England and sell the lion. Bertie attempts to save the animal by returning it to the jungle, but it has lost its ability to survive in the wild and returns to the only home it has known. A French circus owner buys the lion, and the boy vows never to forget him. Twelve years later, Bertie fights in World War I and is decorated for rescuing wounded comrades. In a small French town he finally finds his lion, starving and near death, and the two friends are reunited. Heartened by the woman's tale, the student returns to school. This touching story is well written and emotionally satisfying. Readers will be drawn to this fascinating tale of a unique friendship between boy and beast. In addition to being a successful adventure story, the book demonstrates the value of character?of keeping promises, standing up for one's beliefs, and courage under fire.?Gebregeorgis Yohannes, San Francisco Public Library, CA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. FROM BOOKLIST
Gr. 4-6. In this story within a story, readers listen along with a 10-year-old boy as a friendly old widow, Millie, tells about her dead husband, Bertie, who grew up in South Africa with a white lion as his pet and only friend. Devastated when his father sells the lion, Bertie vows to find the beast again one day. The story sounds hokey, but Morpurgo evocatively captures the South African landscape and presents young, lonely Bertie's heartbreak and his blossoming friendship and love for Millie with genuine emotion and tender poignancy. Eventually, a reunion does come after Bertie goes off to fight the war in France. When the lion finally dies, Bertie and Millie honor it by carving a monument that attracts beautiful blue butterflies. With just the right mix of tension and romance, this short, sophisticated novel will appeal especially to animal lovers. Kathleen Squires FROM KIRKUS REVIEWS
A runaway schoolboy finds a magnificent monument to a magnificent animal in this ghost story, at once marvelous and matter-of-fact, from Morpurgo (Robin of Sherwood, 1996, etc.) . The author casts himself as the ten-year-old narrator, whose attempt to run away from a miserable boarding-school existence ends in a dusty house, where a friendly old widow shows him a great lion cut into the chalk on a hillside--the butterfly lion. She tells him how it came to be there: Her Bertie, a lonely boy in South Africa, found and began to raise a white lion cub, tearfully saw it sold to a French circus owner, reclaimed it years later during the Great War, and brought it to England to live. When it died, Bertie spent the next 40 years carving its likeness on the hill. Astonishing in itself, the chalk lion becomes even moreso after a rain, when thousands of Adonis Blue butterflies gather on it. Urging him to come again, the old woman takes the boy back to school; only later does he learn that she died--as her husband did--years ago. This dreamlike story is suffused with a man's lifelong love for a rare, gentle animal friend. (Fiction. 9-12) -- Copyright 1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. REVIEW
[In] Morpurgo's cozy, well-executed British novel...magic enters the novel at an appropriate moment, and the conclusion is sweet.

-- "Publishers Weekly" ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christian Birmingham is a young artist of outstanding talent. In 1991 he graduated from Exeter College of Art and Design and has since illustrated several highly praised books. Christian lives in Brighton, Sussex.

Michael Morpurgo, former Children's Laureate of Britain, is the author of War Horse, called superb by the New York Times Book Review and now a major motion picture. He was knighted in 2018 for services to literature and charity. His writing has won numerous award, including the Whitbread Children's Book Award, the California Young Reader Medal, the Red House Children's Book Award, and France's Prix Sorcieres, among others and others. He lives in Devon, England, with his wife, Clare. Together they founded the charity Farms for City Children, which gives children from urban areas an opportunity to spend a week working on a farm in the countryside.



Virginia McKenna is a British actress who has stared in numerous films and television shows. Her performance in the 1956 film A Town Like Alice earned her a BAFTA Award for Best British Actress. She has also spent many years working as a wildlife campaigner, and for her efforts she was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2004.

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