Title: The Clumsy Adventures of Lily the Lion
Subtitle: Lily Goes Camping
Author: Shelby Elizabeth
Publisher: Xlibris
ISBN: 978-1-6698-3887-6
Pages: 24
Genre: Illustrated Children’s Book
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
Pacific Book Review
All people, but mostly children in particular, are clumsy at times. Tripping over things left on the floor, or doing stuff which results in extra effort or not-so-good consequences, clumsiness does happen. But clumsy comes with forgiveness, as by definition it is not intentional but rather just an awkward gesture. In The Clumsy Adventures of Lily the Lion by author Shelby Elizabeth, readers see how clumsy can be funny!
Readers are entertained by this little girl-lion Lily, as she prepares to go camping with her lion-family during the first day of summer vacation from school. Getting her back-pack stuffed with all of the things she will need, Lily trips on her brother’s toy truck left on the floor in the hall, falling and dropping her back-pack, having all of her items come out in a mess. The good part is Lily wasn’t hurt, but she had to re-pack all of her stuff.
Then off to the campground where Lily first wanted to set up her own tent by herself, but that doesn’t work out so well, and her father showed her how to do it. Next a squirrel startled her as she was gathering firewood. Lily was able to catch a fish and was very proud of herself. But the big clumsy event at the end is when she got distracted and left her marshmallow over the campfire too long, causing it to burn up. Learning from all of these “lessons” made Lily happy as she tucked herself into her sleeping bag to drift off for the night, knowing on her next camping trip she will do much better.
Throughout these moments in Lily’s quest for being a big-little-girl, readers can giggle and laugh at the misfortunes of Lily, while certainly being captivated by the artfully generated illustrations of this personified lion-character with her lion-family.
Author Shelby Elizabeth has created a special world of funny moments in which all children will visualize and enjoy. Seeing Lily making the best of her events, and always snapping back to try-and-try again, will demonstrate a good lesson to youngsters; never to give up – and if something clumsy happens, just laugh it off. Also, don’t leave your marshmallow too long over the campfire!
