The Lion Who Stole My Arm by Nicola Davies (review)

Pedru hasn’t got much of a catch to show for a day’s fishing with his friends, and he hopes to soften his mother’s wrath for coming home late by bringing back a guinea fowl from one of his snares in the African grasslands. A lion gets there first and lingers long enough to pounce on Pedru, severing his arm before the boy is able to break free. Now disabled, Pedru takes some comfort from his hunter father’s encouragement that his other significant skills remain intact; however, it’s revenge that Pedru really wants, and he gets an opportunity when a lion enters his village and the men organize a hunt to kill the intruder. Pedru and his father bring the beast down, but upon seeing the corpse up close, Pedru begins to wonder whether the lion was in fact the same one who maimed him. Scientists at a nearby tracking station were actually monitoring the animal, which was wearing a collar, and when Pedru returns the collar, he discovers a new opportunity to work with scientists and villagers to strategize how to keep humans and lions apart without further bloodshed. Davies, already well established as a premier science writer for children (Deadly!: The Truth About the Most Dangerous Creatures on Earth, BCCB 3/13, etc.), demonstrates her considerable fiction-writing chops, elegantly tailoring this to a middle-grades audience and utilizing a recognizable chapter-book format of short chapters and plentiful spot art. Pedru’s tale is seamlessly blended with a clear-eyed portrayal of perilous relationship between lions and farmers in regions of present day Africa, and an afterword entitled “Living with Lions” summarizes the problem of peaceful coexistence in direct terms. This will be a first choice for big-cat lovers and a powerful selection for a classroom animal conservation unit.