The Lioness’s Child by Katerina Mparma is a simple and beautiful children’s story set in the savannahs of Africa. Lioness Daphne is a new mother and lives with other lionesses on the African plains. One day, a huge male lion approaches the group and a fight ensues, resulting in the death of two lion cubs, including Daphne’s newborn cub. Of course, the new mother is devastated but, following the ways of nature, the pack moves on and attacks a group of antelopes for food. After the kill, Daphne realizes that a baby antelope is now left motherless, and feels sorry for it and wants to protect it. She leaves her own group and raises the baby antelope, Rosa, as her child. Rosa grows up and soon the time comes for her to join her own species, take her place in the group, and become a mother herself. Rosa loves Daphne, who has raised her against all odds like her own mother, but they both know that the time has come for her to join her own people.

I was absolutely enthralled with this short and poignant tale of love and acceptance, and what it truly means to be a parent. Daphne’s message to Rosa as she prepares to leave to join her own group is beautiful and says a lot in a few words: “This is where you belong, take care, I love you.” The writing style is very simple and easy to understand, even for young children. The illustrations by Orestis Diamantis complement the book nicely and truly evoke the African savannah. This is a wonderful, sweet and short story that I would encourage all parents to read.

The Lioness’s Child is a children’s book by Katerina Mparma with illustrations by Orestis Diamantis. It tells the tale of Daphne, a mother lioness who loses her cub in a fearful attack in the savannah. After this, an orphaned antelope by the name of Rosa finds her way to Daphne, and the two begin an unlikely but joyous mother-daughter relationship. The story deals with the ideas of adjusting to life, even though the pair comes from different species, and is accompanied by colourful African-style illustrations on every other page which bring the tale to life.

Katerina Mparma has created an uplifting story that will be a pleasant read for young children guided by their parents. There are a few spelling, formatting and grammatical errors that prevent me from giving the story the full five stars, but if they were fixed then this would definitely be a top read. The illustrations by Orestis Diamantis are beautiful, vivid, and occasionally a little frightening in their depiction of the most dramatic scene, but I’m certain that readers will adore the way they complement the plot.

The message of the story is an excellent one and the style of storytelling is clear, but also rich in its use of interesting and innovative words that children will learn during the reading experience. Overall, I’d say that The Lioness’s Child is an almost perfect fable for youngsters to enjoy, one that delivers ideas of motherhood, loss and the circle of life in a beautiful and uplifting format.