Product Description

Charlie Ashanti is on the run from an amazing floating circus with six homesick beautiful Lions and an extraordinary sabre-toothed creature. Charlie has promised to help the Lions find their way home to Morocco but he has his own problems: his Mum and Dad have been kidnapped and he is determined to find them. His new friends, King Boris of Bulgaria and his security chief, Edward, have promised to help. But Charlie wonders if he was wrong to trust them when he and the Lions find themselves held virtually as prisoners in Venice. They eventually escape with the help of a friendly gondolier, and after a dangerous sea journey the Lions finally make it home and Charlie is at last reunited with his parents.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19055 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
At the end of Zizou Corder's best-selling Lionboy, Charlie Ashanti--a boy who could speak ‘cat’--was left aboard the Orient Express bound for Venice. In his company are a prehistoric beast and six lions he helped free from a Floating Circus in Paris and from the clutches of a nasty, mysterious Lion trainer called Maccomo. Next door to him on the train is a friendly Bulgarian King called Boris who has taken Charlie and the lions under his protection. Charlie's parents have been kidnapped by the agents of the sinister Corporacy, probably for inventing the cure to Asthma, so he must find them, and the lions would like to return to their ancestral home in Morocco. It is under these circumstances that Corder’s Lionboy trilogy embarks upon its latest chapter. What a beginning!

Charlie and the Lions get to Venice and become involved in a revolution there. Charlie has the brilliant idea of introducing Primo, the giant Smilodon, to the Doge, as a cover for an escape attempt. After all, he has the lions of St Mark's, or at least their statues. The Venetians think that Charlie is an Angel and that the mysterious creature is sent by God to save them. But there’s still Rafi Sadler to deal with, implicated in Charlie’s kidnap, and the furious Maccomo the lion-tamer. Add a shipwreck, a really good chameleon called Ninu, and a few more shocking surprises and you’ve got the recipe for a stunningly entertaining sequel and riotously good yarn.

Corder’s stories are action-packed and great fun to read. They’re pure adventure for young readers with not the slightest whiff of a ‘crossover’ accusation coming anywhere near them. The concluding volume, Lionboy: The Truth, should be a corker. (Age 9 and over) --John McLay

Funday Times
Thrilling moments and dangerous scrapes… We give this read a big paws up!

The Independent
This is not just a fun book; it is also a wise one. Roll on the finale

Customer Reviews

Excellent follow-up
Lionboy is a unique, rich plot that carries on strong in The Chase, sequel to Lionboy. The authors have set it in a future world that is not unlike our own world today, adding a haunting backdrop to this otherwise positive story. Some previous reviews of Lionboy mentioned that it was easy to tell that one of the authors was a child, as some of the text was blander than other parts, but I tried to distinguish the bland parts of this book and couldn't find any. There's strong dialogue and description, and plenty of imagination, especially concerning the mysterious lion-like creature Primo.

The end of the book is reasonably cheerful, but the final sentence very clearly tells the reader that the story is certainly not over. I can't wait to read Lionboy: The Truth, the third book in the trilogy!

Rely on the lion!
Bought this after reading the first book in the series (not realising that it was part of a series until I got to the end of the book!) and have thrououghly enjoyed them all. Read all three to my two sons at bedtimes, but I had to read them myself first as I couldn't wait that long to find out what happened! Well written, easy to understand storyline, and quite exciting - would recommend!

The Chase - as exciting as Lionboy.
I think it is quite sad that someone very young is taken away from his family.I also think it's very exciting for someone his age to go to Italy and France and wouldn't it be amazing to be able to speak cat and be in a circus with lions and escape from the circus with them.