The Happy Lioness

Happy Lion

by Louise Fatio, Roger Duvoisin

With the Happy Lion in the animal hospital with an injured paw, the Happy Lioness finds people are not so interested in a maneless lion and decides to play a hoax on her friends

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1980

About the author

Louise Fatio Duvoisin was a Swiss-born American writer of children's books. Many were created in collaboration with her husband Roger Duvoisin, a Swiss-born illustrator, and she is known best for their picture book series Happy Lion. The Happy Lion (1954), first in the series, won the inaugural, 1956 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in its German-language translation (Der glückliche Löwe).

Reviews

[Peacegal · Rating 2 out of 5]

The zoo visitors are bored when they see "just" a lioness, who lacks the mane of her male counterpart. Tired of being ignored, the lioness has the other animals create her a unique and beautiful "mane" out of other materials, and she is greatly amused to see her popularity skyrocket.

While the Happy Lioness laughs about the strange habits of humans, and the Happy Lion reassures her that he likes her just the way she is, some of the messaging here (females aren't as interesting, attractive, or well-liked as males; a female must change her appearance to gain respect) is rather cringey when viewed with modern eyes.

I can see the nostalgia value of the book with its colorful, cute illustrations, but those looking for picture books for the intended age group may want to seek out material with less dated gender stereotyping.

[Runa]

i ship it.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This, I think, is my favorite Happy Lion book (even though it's not technically a book about Happy Lion at all). It was actually the first one I read, which of course led me to the rest of the Happy Lion series.