Product Description

Charlie Ashanti can speak Cat. He takes it for granted, but when his mum and dad go missing, the Cats are the only friends he can turn to. Setting out to find his parents, Charlie stows away on a circus ship. On board he meets six lions who need his help. They embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #211273 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Most novels only need a few original ideas to be interesting--but Lion Boyhas enough to make it truly special. The astonishing literary creation of adult novelist Louisa Young and her teenage daughter, Isabel Adomakoh Young, writing together as "Zizou Corder", has taken the children's publishing world by storm. It's the first part of a trilogy, which encompasses an incredible journey from London to Paris, and onto Venice and then Africa, that many have hailed as a genuine rival to Harry Potter.

It's certainly as engaging and unputdownable as any tome by Ms Rowling. This is the story of Charlie Ashanti, who discovers he can speak the language of cats after he is scratched by a big cat on a trip to Africa as a baby. It's a gift he has had all his life, but he only discovers how essential it can be when his scientist parents suddenly go missing. They were on the brink of a historic medical discovery and the suspicion is that somebody has kidnapped them. Charlie uses his network of cat friends to track their journey overseas to Paris, and to get across the English Channel he inadvertently joins the crew of a travelling Circus Ship.

The ship is, of course, an incredible place to be and amongst the many new friends he makes are six big, beautiful and proud lions who need his help to escape. Tracked by agents of his parents' kidnapper, Charlie is never out of danger and his arrival in Paris is marked by much drama and excitement.

Lion Boy scores most highly on its sheer readability and entertainment value. It's a fun, breeze of a read that would liven up any dull day. (Age 9 and over) --John McLay

Review
How does a writer know what children really want to read? One way to find out is to get them to help you write the book in the first place, and the astounding success of Lion Boy is testimony to the superb partnership between Louisa Young and her ten year old daughter Isabel. Ask any child to list the ingredients of a good read, and I guarantee they will be found here -a thumping good plot; a valiant young hero out to rescue the adults caught up by a gang of deliciously wicked villains; talking cats; the glamour of the circus ring; a race against time and hardly any sloppy stuff. Charlie Ashanti has been able to speak cat since a chance encounter with a leopard in infancy. The son of supremely intelligent parents, who are on the verge of a groundbreaking scientific discovery, Charlie considers himself to be just like any other boy, apart from his talent with all creatures feline. That is, until the day he comes home to a deserted house, bearing all the traces of a kidnap. Charlie is made of pretty stern stuff and is determined to track down his parents. This marks the start of a series of enthralling adventures as Charlie joins a circus ship bound for France, hot on their trail, only able to keep up with his parents' abductors via a sort of cats' underground network. Packed with excitement, with danger lurking round every corner, Lion Boy is truly unputdownable. Alas, there is one major flaw - Ziziou Corder believes in cliffhangers on an epic scale, and to find out what happens to Charlie and his family, we will just have to curb our impatience and wait for the next book in the trilogy. (Kirkus UK)

The Independent
A fantasy yarn that will be enjoyed by children all over the world…The novel sparkles with wisdom and wisecracks

Customer Reviews

The Lion Boy
I liked this book because it was so exciting and unpredictable and it was scary at some points. I learned a lot from it and I could not put the book down and I stayed up past ten o'clock reading it ( I am 8). I can not wait to read the other ones. I would recommend this book for all children who like adventures.
Ruby G.

A SPELLBINDING READING
Broadway and film veteran Simon Jones gives a zesty, fulsome reading of this unusual tale about a boy who speaks a strange language - Cat. Yes, Charlie Ashanti can speak the language of cats. Fortunately so as he needs all the feline help he can get in this first adventure in a planned trilogy.

Charlie came home from school one day and found his parents gone - kidnaped. What can Charlie do but go in search of them? His quest, first aided by stray city cats, proves fruitless. Undaunted the boy presses on by joining a floating circus en route to Paris. Once on board he enlists the help of the caged lions by offering them their freedom in return.
Of course, there are bad guys here - thugs who would do him harm and a none too happy lion tamer. The unique cast of characters almost equals the unheard of adventures encountered by Charlie.

We can only eagerly await the second installment from this spellbinding mother-daughter team. (Zizou Corder is Louisa Young, the author of several books, and Isabel Adomakoh Young who is a little young to have written very much yet.)

give it a roar of approval
The reason why I've given this 4 stars not 5 is that both my children and I felt hugely frustrated by the ending. It's a rip-roaring yarn set in the future, with Charlie Ashanti's scientist parents kidnapped from their London home. A year before this happens his mother has written something in her own blood and hidden it; naturally, it turns out to be what the kidnappers want. Charlie sets out to save them, and his quest is aided by his being able to speak not just Cat but Big Cat. Lucky for him he finds refuge in a circus with six proud, drugged lions.
If you've ever longed to speak to animals, or run away and join the circus, Lionboy is the book for you. It's fast and fun, with an undercurrent of seriousness that should appeal to a wide age-range. No doubt it'll be hyped to death, but kids will only care about the story. (The cover and maps are great, though.)My son thought there ought to be more fighting, and we're all on tenterhooks for the sequel.