Jim's Lion

Reviewed by: Mary Lehmer - Freeport Community Library, Freeport, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: November 15, 2014

Review

This graphic novel is about a little boy that's sick, but at first you don't know that. There are just drawings of crazy things happening to a little boy, most of them scary that end up with him almost being really hurt. Then they stop and you hear a young boy talking to his nurse from his hospital bed about being scared in his dreams. The nurse tells him he need to go to his special place somewhere that he feels calm and safe and there his special "finder"? will come to him and help him. This story is really powerful. The scary dreams are something most of us as a child might have had when we are frightened or really sick and the illustrations (which are incredible) match what a feverish dream might produce. The idea of the finder is lovely and gives a child, or an adult that is very sick, a way to deal with it. The ending here is not always what a child will end up with, but it offers hope and a way to deal with the scariness of being very sick. This would be am excellent addition to any libraries graphic novel section.CREAM

Overall Book Score: excellent