Deep in the Jungle

by Dan Yaccarino

When the king of the jungle gets bored with constantly giving orders to all the animals, he happily takes an offer to become the star of the circus, yet once there, he realizes that he is merely a servant and so returns home whereupon he apologizes for having been so mean to everyone. Reprint.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Childrens, Friendship

40 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2000

About the author

Exhibitions of his work have been held throughout the world. He is also the creator of the animated TV Series Willa's Wild Life and Oswald.

Mr. Yaccarino lives in New York City with his wife and two children.

Reviews

[Kylie Psaila · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is not a bad book per se, I just am not a big fan of circuses. Apart from that I like how the lion learned how to treat the other animals better.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a cute children’s book. I love the animals and their reactions. Pictures are wonderful as well. 💜💜💜

[Gloria · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lion who bullies the other jungle animals is fooled by a human and ends up in a circus where he is similarly bullied. Everything ends well for the animal bully because he repents of his ways. The human bully doesn’t get the same chance to change; he just ends up “you can figure out the rest.” So, some bullies can change; some can’t. Just hope your bully can and does. Great not great story with nice illustrations.

[Karin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one has lots of words for this many pages. And they were worth it. If your littles could be disturbed by animal with eating tendencies, then they may not be ready for it, but in the vein of I want My Hat Back, the kids laughed and laughed.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little bit dark, but a decent storybook.

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

After being tricked into joining the circus, an arrogant lion escapes and returns to the jungle where he lives peacefully with the animals he used to terrorize.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I volunteer at my local library reading to a 6-year-old girl who struggles with reading. We enjoyed reading this book together. It had a good plot with a good moral.

[Kelly Chester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a cute book

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

What happens when arrogance, pride, and wishful thinking collide with workplace jerks and a bit of imposed humility? Well, it's a bit dark.

[Ms. Jeane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit I love how this book ends ;)

[Michelle Farella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great message, great presentation.

[Elizabeth Heuston · Rating 4 out of 5]

by: Dan Yaccarino

genre: picture book, fiction

audience: Early elementary

topic: Jungle animals, circus

Theme: Bossiness, friendship

Curricular uses: Read aloud, independent reading, reading conference

Reading level; late early or early transitional

Illustrations: The pictures support the text in showing the content of the story. They could be a bit more colorful

Literary Elements:irony, onomatopoeia,

Thoughts: The story is about a bossy lion who is king of the jungle. He tells all the other animals what to do for him, never doing anything for them. One day a circus man come and promises the lion he will make him famous. The lion goes with the man, who does not live up to his promise, and treats the lion harshly. The realizes that this is how he treats his friends. He eat the man, then heads back to the jungle only to find his friends being taken away. He eats that man and frees his friens. He then apologizes for the way he acted before.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the books I've been reading recently have good rhymes (and I feel can therefore capture the attention of younger kids)- this one does NOT have a rhyme. It is a cute enough story, but wait until your kid is ready for a shorter story without a rhyme to help keep their attention. It's about a lion who is king of the jungle and the other animals hate him. He's tricked into going to the circus and then ends up eating the lion tamer and goes back to the jungle. He saves his friends from another circus man and apologizes to his friends and then everything is great! At times there are some smart remarks that would be over the heads of babies, so like I said previously, at least wait til your kid is a toddler or perhaps in Elementary School.

[Cara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The King was a bit of a shmuck, always scaring the other critters and bossing them around. One day, a smooth talking human arrives and convinces the lion that instead of eating him, the lion should go into show biz. What the human really did was trick the lion into joining the circus. After a while, he gets fed up and returns home after eating the human. The animals were happy to see him even though they were all in cages and getting ready to go to the circus themselves, unwillingly. The lion eats the leader and frees the animals.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is about a lion who insists on the other animals in the jungle obeying his every command. The the lion is taken away to the circus and promised fame. The lion soon discovers that the circus is not what he thought at all and returned to his jungle friends and apologized for being so bossy and prideful.

Great story about pride and bossiness.

[Marisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kids and I would love to see this as a short cartoon movie someday. There are several parts that are probably not appropriate for smaller children (younger than 5 yrs old). I suggest you read it ahead of time in case your child is sensitive. Otherwise, it's a fun lesson...even appropriate for me to share with co-workers. :)

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

The message is a nice one, but why does the lion have to eat multiple people is wondrous.
After being tricked into joining the circus, an arrogant lion escapes and returns to the jungle where he lives peacefully with the animals he used to terrorize.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lion says he's King of the jungle and makes all the other animals do whatever it is he says. One day, a man is wandering in the jungle and finds the lion and vows to make him a star. The lion soon learns that the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence.

[Kate McCartney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lion learns that he is a part of the jungle community not just the King.

[Monique Welch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roartastic lesson!

[Wendopolis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny!

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

jungle animals, circuses (circuses are bad for animals)

[Brandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

kind of bazzare that a children's book the Lion eats the man!

[The Book Box]

Mama brought this home from her school library. We love Dan Yaccarino but haven't read all of his books, so it was fun to have new ones to read! Mama read me this one last night.