Children's Novel: The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo

The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo


This is an older book that I picked up on a whim for the title alone. I happened to be in the children's section of the library that day, turned around while looking for something else, and I decided that I'd read it for the title.

Per the author's notes, this story is based on a book about a pride of white lions, a true story of a WWI soldier who rescued circus animals, and a meeting with Virginia McKenna. The story itself is told by an old woman to a young boy who wants to run away from the horrible school he's attending. They meet by chance as he tries to return home, and hides in the gateway of her house. She introduces her dog as Jack and invites the boy to have tea and scones with her. While in the kitchen, the boy chances a look out the window and sees what looks like a white lion in the hillside, but when he looks again, the lion is blue, and shimmering, almost as if it's alive.

The old woman says the lion is real, and once upon a time, he was alive, and lived in Africa with a boy named Bertie who rescued him after his mother was killed for hunting cattle. Bertie and the lion lived together until Bertie was old enough to go to boarding school, at which point, the lion was sold to a Frenchman for his circus. He promised himself he would find his lion again someday, and return him to Africa.

There were many problems with that; Bertiie's mother died, and his father sold the ranch in Africa and moved away. And the first World War was starting, and Bertie volunteered to go, leaving behind his dear friend, the girl who became the woman telling the story. While he was recuperating in France, the girl found him again as she became a nurse to help with the soldiers, and they travel into town to a tiny cafe - only to see a faded circus poster with a white lion on it. They find out that the owner of the circus had had to shoot his animals, as the food for them had been appropriated by the military. That doesn't stop Bertie and the girl from traveling to his home to find him and the white lion, still alive.

The story is definitely written for children, but bittersweet rather than giving it a completely happy ending.