Reviews for Christian the Lion (Henry Holt Edition)

The average rating for Christian the Lion (Henry Holt Edition) based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-08-17 00:00:00 James Kingsley The memoir A Lion Called Christian, tells the real life story of the lion cub purchased by two men from the window of Harrod's department store in London. That's right, bought from the store like a puppy. This was 1969. Obviously things were different then. Not to say that this sort of thing doesn't occur in the world today, but from a downtown store?! I'm not downing the two men, Ace & John, for purchasing him because they did right by this lion. After realizing they could no longer care for the ever growing cub, they accepted the offer of a rehabilitation program that would return Christian to the wilderness of Africa. Many may have seen a little Youtube video about these two men reuniting with their cub one year after giving him up. I saw that video on a television program some years ago. When I noticed this book cover in the library, I immediately remembered that show. Here's this big lion running towards two guys on the plains of Africa, and then leaping onto their shoulders and nuzzling his face to theirs. They had been separated for 10 months, but Christian remembered them as if only a day had passed. Chokes me up just thinking about it. Oddly enough, Christian's birthday was August 12th. If he were alive today, he would be 47 years old. It's just a coincidence that I picked up this CD book from the library on this date. After listening to the book, I watched the video again. The clip says that Christian had been fully integrated back into the wild, but according to the book, he still had occasional contact with the human rehabilitator. He can be seen in the clips. Ace & John saw their lion one last time in 1973, about a year following the first reunion. His mane nearly full now, Christian has become the leader of his own pride, yet he had not forgotten. The pride left the area sometime after that, so we don't know what eventually became of Christian. I'm glad he was back where he belonged.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-09-11 00:00:00 Theodore Voth III This is the heartwarming tale of 2 men and the lion that they bought in the pet department of Harrods. Easily read in about 4 hours and full of beautiful photographs. Highly recommended.