Review: The Lion's Deceit Book

Look out publishers, a new publishing house has opened with books for children. Village Life Books has a founder who grew up in Botswana, Africa and has very special memories of growing up in the rural village in Botswana. At Village Life Books, the goal is to bring together resources which share the positive aspect of growing up in Africa with the world by sharing some of the old stories that the village elders and grandparents shared with the children.


Storytelling in Africa is maintained by oral tradition. The stories play a very important role in the lives of the children. They help solve problems and teach moral values. Without grandparents and elders to tell the stories, the stories are often lost. Village Life Books provides a means to preserve these stories in a modern way.


In their debut book, The Lion's Deceit by Mpho Otukile, we learn about a very lazy lion who tries to deceive the animals into thinking his is sick. Then he eats the animals as they come to visit his sickbed. When the jackal figures out what the lazy lion is doing--look out! He rallies the other animals and they confront the lion. The lazy lion is forced into the jungle to work and hunt for his food.


It's a short story with great moral values for children (and adults). It has nice illustrations and is a quick read for youngsters. My kids liked the story and the pictures. I like the values being instilled through the story. My oldest (teen) wouldn't read it for himself, but he did read the story to his non-reading little sister. And while I thought the animals getting eaten (NOT shown in the pictures) might be a little much for my kids, they seemed to accept it as part of life and were not bothered by it at all.


You can purchase an autographed copy of the book for $10 through Village Life Books. It will ship to you from Canada. It can also be purchased at the Createspace eStore where the books ship from the USA. Use the coupon code 2LU4EXJM to get 10% off at the Createspace eStore.


For more information, you can follow Village Life Books on Twitter or Facebook. And you can purchase the book knowing that a portion of the proceeds to Books for Africa, in order that some books can be shipped to Botswana.

This is a MamaBuzz review. The product was provided by Village Life Books for this review. All opinions are my own.