When Lion Could Fly: And Other Tales from Africa

by Nick Greaves

This unusual volume combines animal tales from African folklore with facts about the animals native either to Africa's grasslands or its rainforests. Supplementing each tale is a table of facts about the story's leading animal. A map of Africa shows where the animals live and migrate.

Genres: Fiction, Wildlife, Literature, Mythology, Animals, Short Stories, Africa

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Elizabeth McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a perfect book for bedtime stories on a vacation. The folktales are grouped by which animal they feature, accompanied by full-color illustrations of that animal and factual information. My child loved the stories with folk explanations of why animals became the way they are today.

[Michela Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my favourite books when I was a child, together with Nick Greaves’ ‘When Hippo was Hairy.’ I spent a lot of time camping in the bush throughout my childhood and I loved reading these fables and learning facts about the animals in them while we sat at our campsite. I think these stories are a beautiful way to introduce the many animals of the bush to children, and I hope to be able to share them and my love of the bush with my children one day!

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of fables.

Some of the short stories were good and the illustrations were vivid.

Reading time around two hours.

[Anja · Rating 2 out of 5]

The name of the story that I read is “How Serval Got His Spots” and since this is a fable, there isn’t a author. This fable was told by the Ndebele people which is a community of people in Africa. The genre of this book is Folklore and the sub genre of this story is Fables. I chose to read this story for my English Presentation, since our unit is about fables. This particular story is retold by Nick Greaves.
This story explains how Servals got their spots. The setting of this book is In Africa, a long time ago. The central characters are a Serval and a snake. In this fable, Servals had no spots, and therefore were called ‘Lion’s Little Cousins’. Servals wished nothing but to have a beautiful coat like a Zebra. Then, one day when a snake got sick and no one else would help him, Serval was so nice to help him get better. To thank this act of kindness, the snake bit the Serval, and gave him spots.
This story teaches me a lesson about being kind and helpful. The Serval helped the snake when he was sick and no one else would help him. Also I think this story teaches that you should be kind to others, or else not many people will offer to help you when you need help. I liked this story because I think it teaches you important lessons. Since this is a fable, the characters didn’t seem real. (Animals can talk) All in all, I liked this story.
10 - 13

[Eamon · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Lion Could Fly: And Other Tales from Africa
By Nick Greaves
3 Stars

This book comes under the Book Blog Bingo Board catergory of ' A book of short stories'. This book contains many myths and legends from the tribes of Africa. A majority of the stories have a moral or conflict in them that is overcome. All of the stories are to do with animals or the 'first man and woman' of Africa. In some of the stories the animals have problems between themselves and inn other stories the animal/s help a human out in one way or another.

I think that this was a reasonably good book but some of the stories in it weren't as good as the others. I also think that this book puts a good spin on how people/animals have to work together to overcome problems. For example, in the story where a drought occurs, the wise, old snake lives on the only tree that still produces fruit. He then lets all the other animals eat food fromhis tree and overcome the drought

[Katarina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of folk stories from Africa interspersed with factual data on the animals figuring in the stories, this book fascinated me as a kid. I've always loved folk stories and the window into another world that they can provide, and as an animal lover, the facts were every bit as fascinating to me as stores about tricksters and human-animal cooperation.

[LeAnne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thirty fascinating animal stories from African mythology plus facts and habitat information.
Beautifully done book that combines lovely illustrations and high interest stories with non-fiction information.

[Bernadette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful illustrations accompany these African tales! I appreciated the informative facts about the various animals at the end of stories - this helps the book appeal to children who enjoy both fiction and nonfiction.