About this book
A bilingual English and Urdu picture book: a folktale to read out loud, for ages 5 to 7.
Once there was a lion, and he was the biggest thing in the jungle. He knew it, too. Every morning he climbed onto his rock and roared, just to hear the whole jungle go quiet.
A story from the Panchatantra, told in India for about two thousand years, and told in this house last Tuesday.
The Urdu is set in real Nastaliq, as large as the English, so a grandmother can read it as easily as a parent. Written and made in Lahore, Pakistan.
Cannot read the Urdu script? Scan the code on page 2 to hear every page of the story read aloud, in English and in Urdu.
Every left-hand page is a picture and every right-hand page is the words: the English, written to be said out loud, with the Urdu underneath. At the foot of each page is one small job for the child: a line to join in with, something to do, a question with no wrong answer, something to spot in the picture, or a moment to wait before the page turns.
Told the old way. The lion really does eat the animals who come to him, and at the end he jumps into the well and drowns. If your child likes a real story with a real ending, this is that story. If not, it may be one to keep for a little later.
After the story:
- Two pages of true things, answering questions like "Do lions really live in a jungle?" and "How loud is the loudest roar of his life?"
- A page to trace and a page to colour
- Two activity sheets, one for Kindergarten and one for Grade 1, with the answers for the grown-up
- A game to finish on, The Slowest Hare: two or more players, nothing needed, a room or a yard
Look inside
What is in the book
Story pages
A picture on the left, the words on the right, and one small job for the child under them.
Pages of true things
The true things behind the story, for after the last page.
Game at the end
To play together once the story is done.