Stories for Growing
Cover of How to Be a LionAges 2 to 8
Independent thinkingDisagreeing kindly

How to Be a Lion

Ed Vere

Ages 2 to 8
About this age guidance

Kirkus: 2–8

The age tag follows Kirkus review. Other sources may suggest different ages. This is audience guidance, not an independent reading level.

Recommended for a gentle lion who thinks and writes poetry instead of conforming.

Leonard’s gentle interests and friendship with Marianne do not fit the other lions’ expectations. He and Marianne think together and answer the pressure through a poem. Their response asks for room to live differently.

Good forBullying

Recommended by What Do We Do All Day?

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What children see in the story

Leonard chooses his own way of living and explains it despite pressure to conform. He pauses to consider an answer and responds with words that defend difference without copying the lions’ aggression.

Why it’s on these shelves

Independent thinking
Leonard likes noticing the world and making poems instead of acting fierce. When other lions say he should eat his duck friend Marianne, he answers with a poem and keeps her as his friend.
Disagreeing kindly
Leonard and Marianne go to their thinking hill and work out a response together. They answer the other lions with a poem that asks for room to be different, without demanding that everyone become alike.

Why pick it up?

Leonard stands by his friendship and offers a nonviolent answer.

A note for parents

The threat is challenged through thought and language. Leonard’s choices, not the other lions’ pressure, guide the story.

Where this recommendation comes from

What Do We Do All Day?

Recommended for a gentle lion who thinks and writes poetry instead of conforming.

Read What Do We Do All Day?’s recommendation
Sources and review status

We have checked source descriptions and drafted the value mapping. We have not personally reviewed the full book. The value labels, situation assignments, and parent notes remain provisional.

Publisher or literacy resource · Original recommendation

Our explanation of the value fit is separate from the original reviewer’s judgment. Their inclusion here does not imply an endorsement of Stories for Growing.

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