Let the Lynx Come In

by Jonathan London, Patrick Benson (Illustrator)

On a cold winter's night, a boy opens his door and lets a magical lynx into his home, and is quickly convinced by the lynx to sit on his back and travel with him on an exciting adventure to places far, far away.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published September 2, 1996

About the author

Jonathan London is the author of several celebrated children's books. His commitment to honoring the wonders of the natural world has been lauded by readers and critics alike. He is the author of more than 70 children's books, many of which are about nature. He's also the author of the popular Froggy series. He lives in Graton, California with his wife and two sons.

Reviews

[Manybooks]

To tell the truth, I am personally just a wee bit conflicted regarding Jonathan London’s 1996 picture book Let the Lynx Come In. For indeed, as a story of total fantasy, as a dream sequence, London’s lyrical text in Let the Lynx Come In of a young boy on the back of a friendly and gigantic lynx riding airborne over the nighttime landscape of the Arctic, culminating in boy and lynx encountering the aurora borealis, is magically sweet and a delightful celebration of both the northern night and the power of the imagination (and also of the stars, the universe, the northern lights). And Patrick Benson’s accompanying illustrations for Let the Lynx Come in, they indeed and most definitely are perfectly visually suited to and for Jonathan London’s presented text, they mirror his printed words colourfully, wonderfully with both realism and at the same time a sense of dreamlike fantasy (and with my only small caveat being that when the lynx grows to gigantic proportions in order to function as the young boy’s steed, its immense hugeness in Patrick Benson’s pictures might perhaps be a bit potentially visually creepy for really sensitive children).

But while it is in my humble opinion pretty clearly shown both textually and illustratively that Let the Lynx Come in is one hundred percent a fantasy and solely a fantasy, and thus of course not at all representing reality, because in Patrick Benson’s artwork, the little boy’s lynx is quite realistically depicted (well, at least until it starts growing and getting bigger and bigger), I do think that parents and/or teachers reading Let the Lynx Come In with or to children should make sure to warn their young audiences that lynxes are wild animals that should not ever be approached, that should not be chased, fed etc. And indeed, lynx are actually really shy and generally extremely wary of humans and that if a lynx were to actually approach humans or be hanging around houses, barns etc., not only should that lynx be actively avoided, it might also perhaps be a good idea to report this, since a lynx that deliberately comes near humans could be diseased, with rabies being a remote but still potentially dangerous possibility (and that frankly, I would have rated Let the Lynx Come in with four instead of three stars had Jonathan London added an author’s note warning children and parents that his story is purely fantastical and that in reality lynxes are wild animals that must not be disturbed, that need to be totally left alone).

[Simone Lavinier]

A poetic and rhythmic tale of a boy who is in a cabin with his father struggling to sleep, finds himself opening the door to a wildcat: A lynx. The Great Lynx and the boy embark on a magical adventure together, through snow, rivers and mountains. The author captures every detail of the adventure by use of strong adjectives, similes and metaphors which fosters the imagery created. Therefore, KS1 and KS2 children can utilise this book to help them generate their ideas when describing characters or scenery in their stories. Similarly, teachers can use sentences from the book as examples of different forms of written language which will help improve children’s writing skills.

[Caleb Miller]

This is a wonderful fantasy book about a boy who meets a lynx and goes on a magical journey. I've taught using this book for 12 years, after I bought it for my own children. Wonderful cadence and a slight mystery-did they really go? A real favorite that holds up well in changing times.

[Summer]

Too much reality in a fictional book for me. More magic, please!

[Miss Lynx Canadensis]

This is such a beautiful book - lyrical and poetic, with lovely illustrations. It really captures a sense of magic, and nature mysticism. It's about a little boy having trouble sleeping in a cabin somewhere far up north with his dad, and the journey he then goes on, through the woods and into the sky, with a lynx spirit.

In fact, it's so poetic that one might be forgiven for thinking it was meant to appeal more to adults than children - but my son, for whom I bought this book when he was... about two or three, I think? -- absolutely adored it and wanted to hear it over and over again. Many nights, he fell asleep after hearing it with a mysterious little smile on his face, as though he was dreaming his own lynx-dreams of stars and moonlight and snow-covered pines.

He's six now, and has mostly moved on to books about spaceships and robots, but just the other day when I found this book in a box I hadn't yet unpacked since moving to our new(-ish) apartment, he came in and spotted and immediately grabbed it. "Look! Look!" he cried excitedly, holding it up to me. And his eyes were shining just as they had every time he heard it when he was little.

[restu Ratnaningtyas]

"Great Lynx commands with silence." So beautiful in and out, words and picture.