They remain inseparable until Bertie has to go away to boarding school and the lion is sold to a circus. I feel that this book is very effective in introducing the serious emotions that children may experience. I especially like the relationship between the old lady and the boy which is both polite and respectful - very refreshing in todays age. e For Berite looking out into the African bush and seeing the tiger for the very first time or his first night alone in the boarding school so very far away from anything he was familiar with.

The whole family will be enthralled by its powerful and gripping story and will weep and cheer by turns. The character of the boy mirrors that of the husband Bertie as they both run way and have to deal with loneliness.Warning: this review may have spoilers** It wasn't my type the start was good but after it got boring. It tells the story of a boy who runs away from school and meets an old lady who tells him the story of her husband and his pet lion cub. Later, when fighting in France in the First World War, he saves two men's lives and is given a Victoria Cross. Many years later, a school-boy discovers the answer, when he sees another lion, on the side of a hill in England.

It deals with loneliness and love, courage and success against all the odds and revolves around friendship, loyalty and, as is so often the case with Morpurgo, the backdrop is the Great War. Just grab any story, and once you've finished it, think about all the new things, and all the new people that you've learnt about, just because you picked up that book.

Morpurgo has never written a lovelier story and the simple drawings of Christian Birmingham, an illustrator i love, really grace the whole thing.

He has an unerring moral compass – his schoolteacher past has never quite left him – and books such as War Horse and The Butterfly Lion have a strong social concience and an honesty that makes them universal. He threw open the gate, and charged down the hill towards the water hole, yelling and screaming, and waving his arms like a wild thing. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. The book ends up in a magical way, but now I am not going to tell you, so you have to read this book and find the ending out!We're told by the author that The Butterfly Lion grew from several magical roots: the memories of a small boy who tried to run away from school a long time ago; a book about a pride of white lions discovered by Chris McBride; a chance meeting in a lift with Virginia McKenna, actress and champion of lions and all creatures born free; a true story of a soldier of the First World War who rescued some circus animals in France from certain death; and the sighting from a train of a white horse carved out on a chalky hillside near Westbury in Wiltshire. We are opposite sides of the same coin and, although his work has never influenced mine, I admire the eloquent, considered voice of his best books. This is a book which I found in the library corner of my year 2 class and as an animal lover it really appealed to me.

Together they discover that Monsieur Merlot's circus has closed down, but that the Frenchman lives nearby with the lion.Michael Morpurgo, began writing stories in the early '70's, in response to the children in his class at the primary school where he taught in Kent.