Sun Flower Lion

by Kevin Henkes

A sun. A flower. And a lion. With three visual motifs, three colors, and fewer than 200 words, renowned Caldecott Medalist and #1 New York Times-bestseller Kevin Henkes cracks open the wide world and the youngest child’s endless imagination. This irresistible picture book is a must-have for every reader and every family.

On a warm morning, a little lion sleeps under a sun that shines so brightly, it looks like a flower. He dreams the flower is as big as the sun. He dreams the flower is a cookie. He lets his imagination soar.

Caldecott Medalist Kevin Henkes uses simple shapes, limited colors, and a pitch-perfect text to tell Lion’s story in this transcendent picture book. Sun Flower Lion introduces emerging readers to short chapters, action verbs, and adjectives, while bright illustrations transform simple shapes into something magical. 

Sun Flower Lion will shine at story time and bedtime and for young children just learning how to read on their own.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Childrens, Storytime, Fiction, Art, Nature

40 pages, Hardcover

First published September 22, 2020

About the author

Kevin Henkes is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. As an illustrator he won the Caldecott Medal for Kitten's First Full Moon (2004). Two of his books were Newbery Medal Honor Books, Olive's Ocean in 2004 and The Year of Billy Miller in 2014. His picture book Waiting was named both a 2016 Caldecott Honor Book and a Geisel Honor Book. It was only the second time any author has won that combination of awards.

Reviews

[Christian Schultheiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kind of see what everyone was saying about this Henkes book in it not being the most creative or compelling but I think it still does what I’ve come to love from his books best, which is too draw in children with a simple compelling art and storyline that connects so dots and helps fire some little neurons in ways they might not have before and especially with me and my son also being Leo’s ourselves, made this book a bit higher almost by automatic relation. But with this one in the bag, we continue down or daunting path of reading the whole of Kevin’s children’s stories. 3.25/5

[Josiah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Conceptual variety is not an area of lack for Kevin Henkes. Ideas seemed to consistently flow throughout the course of his long career, both for his novels and picture books. Varied as his stories are, however, his illustrating style is easy to recognize, and Sun Flower Lion engages our senses with Henkes's familiar, bright array of colors. Does the sun on a clear day resemble a flower? Can a flower look like a lion with a yellow mane? In the opening chapters of this book, we see that sun, flower, and lion can be almost identical. How will the three of them interact, as our lion cavorts on a hillside beneath a shining sun?

Dozing off, the lion dreams about a field of flowers, which morph into fancy cookies as he grows hungry. That's a sure sign it's time to run home for a meal with his family. Some of the lions have yellow manes, others are entirely white, but our lion is content with his place among them, his belly full of good food. The sun, the flower, and the lion are each where they belong.

The color palette for Sun Flower Lion is snug and appealing, the visual lines crisp and clean, but the point of the story eludes me. The sun, flower, and lion each being formed from the exact same shape is interesting, but that mild artistic quirk seems to be everything this book offers. As for why it's divided into chapters, I think I know the answer. Kevin Henkes has noted that he sometimes uses chapters even if they aren't necessary, to encourage beginning readers; finishing your very first "chapter book" is an exciting accomplishment. If you prefer picture books with more narrative substance, I recommend the author's Owen, Jessica, or Waiting. I'd consider rating Sun Flower Lion one and a half stars, but you're not missing much if you skip this one.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sun. A flower. A lion. All with the same design. An interconnected story.

[Libby · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's super odd and surreal, but I liked it! I read it to 5 classes of 3 to 6 year-olds as well as 3 classes of 6 to 9 year olds as part of a lion-themed story time and they loved it! I introduced it by looking at the shape with them and noticing all the different pictures that were made with the same shape. They got a kick out of the short chapters, and one student even observed that in chapter 1 he had one picture with the shape, in chapter 2 he had 2 things made with the shape, in chapter 3 he had 3 things made with the shape, and so on (this theory kind of falls apart after chapter 3, but it's still a fun observation). I had told them in the beginning that this book has 6 chapters (!) and did they think I could read 6 chapters in 3 minutes? (Spoiler alert, I could). With the older kids I approached it as more of an art book. With all the classes, after I was finished I passed out a sheet with a pre-drawn image of the shape on it. I challenged them to draw something with the shape and to use their imaginations. The younger kids mostly drew images from the book, but the older kids got really creative. Some challenged themselves to use as many of the shape as they could and had the entire page filled with images using the shape. Others got creative and turned the shape into lots of things that weren't in the book. I think, depending on how it's used, this can be a great book.

[Laura (Book Scrounger) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a strange book. It was simple but I felt like there was something I wasn't getting. I did love the colors and the motif of the three shapes that looked alike. For a brief moment it hearkened back to Old Bear where an animal dreams of something edible. And my toddler liked it, so I think it would work well as a board book. But dividing a very short toddler book into six "chapters" strikes me as pretentious -- it's annoying to have to keep turning pages that have nothing but chapter headings on them.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

See my full review here: https://www.yabookscentral.com/kidsfi...

SUN FLOWER LION is a great early reader picture book. Told in very brief chapters, the book captures a brief story of a lion who naps on a hill with a flower under the sun. The lion dreams that the flowers are cookies and wakes up hungry. He runs home and falls asleep with his family after eating supper. The illustrations are monochromatic (in shades of gray, white, and yellow) but still visually engaging.

What I loved: This is a cute story that is great for early reading with just enough repetition. While the repeating words are helpful for reading independently at first, they can make for a boring story. Henkes manages to keep the story interesting, while also keeping enough repetition to help with reading confidence. This is also a great book to read to preschoolers, who might start to recognize words and will enjoy the large pictures and interactive story (the book asks if they can see the items described).

Final verdict: A cute early reading picture book, SUN FLOWER LION is simple but great. This would be perfect for beginning readers to share with a younger sibling.

Please note that I received an ARC. All opinions are my own.

[Connie T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The simple text encourages children to see a flower, the sun, and a lion all within the same repeating shape. There isn't much of a storyline here. According to Henkes' "review" the lion is dreaming but that seems to be a bit of a stretch. This would be a great book for story time for the youngest children, but I would probably skip the text announcing each chapter as they wouldn't "get it." For early readers, the chapters help with the transitions. Overall, I think this would be a great book to foster imagination.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I agreed with other reviewers that this would be a great beginner reading book for a young child.
But the ending--is this supposed to be a blended family? Because, of course, in the real world, lions and bears cannot mate and have offspring. So that was kind of confusing for me, since there was no explanation, just illustration.

[Brenda Kahn]

Simplistic, perhaps overly so, "chapter book" that plays with shapes and colors but has no real story to hold everything together.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

For all of you out there who hate the chapter format, have you worked in a library or a bookstore and had a child BEG you for a chapter book when nothing was really on their level. Now we have something for the younger ones! They can read a "chapter book" just like their friends and siblings. Wonderful!

I like the simplicity of the format, and the bright, bold, slightly vintage, graphic illustrations, and the cheerful storyline which hides a slightly snarky side that made me laugh. ("The lion runs home. Can you see him? No, you can't. He is running too fast.") I liked this, and I will recommend it. Y'all can go on with your negative selves.

[Lynn Plourde · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this combo-genre...part picture book, part early reader. Perfect for my 5 year old grandson who is an emergent reader. He will feel like a "big kid" having chapters in the book plus there's enough repetition to facilitate his reading. The art is so simple and adorable--it's a great model for kids to create their own art, stories, books.

[Maeve · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story about a sun a flower and a lion, but really about imagination and dreams.

Not my favorite Henkes book, and I don't think I will ever use it in storytime. EDIT: A parent came up to me and told me that her child loved this book...so while it's not my favorite, some children love it!

[Kelly]

It has the simpleness of Kevin Henkes, but I'm not sure I like the chapter format. That's probably the best way they could think of to put together this stilted book, but yeah, I'm not sure I like it. It's definitely not one of his finest.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate to admit this but I read the book and closed the back cover and thought, "I don't get it." There really isn't much to get. The illustrations are cute but there is nothing compelling at all about the story. My 2 children weren't interested in it at all.

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Love most everything by Kevin Henkes. I am confused by this book. Chapters?

[Meghan Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the simple color scheme and imagination of this book.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The illustrations are perfectly fine and adorable. I don't get the point of the "chapters" and I'm not sure I get the overall intent of the book. As a huge fan of Henkes, I expected so much more.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very geometric in its words and illustrations. In a good way. Like it's got clean, natural lines. It's about nothing and everything at the same time.

[Colette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple and sweet. Perfect for toddler reading.

[Calista · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't decide if the simplicity here is lazy or brilliant. There are three colors used, yellow, white, black, I guess you can count grey as well. The little book is divided into 6 chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the sun, Chapter 2 the Sunflower and Chapter 3 the lion. They all use the same shape for the gold round part.

There isn't much here. This is a book for beginning readers. I suppose they can focus on the shapes and the colors and the reading is simple. For a new reader this might be a great thing. I guess this is on the brilliant side of things.

I wasn't crazy about the Chapter breaks. The whole page, both sides are taken up with this chapter break. It seems sort of cheating the buyer out of art and story. These pages made up the total page count. I guess if it were a board book, it would be the same. Anyway. It bugged me.

See if your beginning reader enjoys this. They just might.

[Rose Rosetree · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're a pattern-seeker, chew on this:

* Three visual motifs
* Three colors
* And fewer than 200 words.

Less is more in this child-sized adventure about human life. Especially educational is the chance to learn what things are called in English, such as "Sun" and "Flower."

What a toddler-friendly way to learn about this world! Learning about Earth School may be quite simple this time around... maybe.

FIVE STAR fanfare, in yellow and grey and white.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorry. I suppose it's just me, but I cannot imagine sharing this with a child. Maybe it would work as an early reader. However, it's pretty rare that a small cub would have a mane, or know what a cookie is... is this supposed to be like a dream? I dunno. I believe that overall I prefer Henkes' earlier works.

[Andrés · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow! The first board book I've seen with chapters! This is a versatile book. Babies can connect with the simply color palette and simple shapes. Toddlers can do pattern recognition and make inferences. Early readers can tackle a thick book. I recommend it!

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an odd one.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will use if I am assigned PreK or ASD classes again next year.

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute illustrations with a fun storyline.

[Kiara Selena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorable read ☀️ 🌻 🦁 this would have been beautiful for my little brother who loved the colour yellow as a baby 💛

[Thaz · Rating 1 out of 5]

A waste of pages. I pity anyone who actually paid to read the book. Half the book was just empty.

[Carrie Kruck · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was brilliant in its simplicity, which isn't actually as simple as it seems! A playful and imaginative introduction to simile, with gentle humor and strong visual appeal.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

(read aloud by himself at 4yo, no words missed)