There's a lion in my cornflakes by Michelle Robinson
Ill. by Jim Field. Bloomsbury, 2014. ISBN 9781408845608.
(Age: 4+) Recommended, Animals, Humour, Competitions, Family. Seeing
a competition on the cornflake packet inspires Eric and Dan to
collect the 100 tokens to win a lion. They use all their pocket
money to buy the packets from the supermarket ripping off the tokens
and sending them in as requested. They wait and wait. Other people
in the neighbourhood receive their lions but they do not. One day a
grizzly bear is delivered to their house, but mum is not impressed.
Neither is their neighbour whose garden is destroyed by the bear.
The boys write to the company complaining that they have not
received a lion, and get instead a crocodile. The animal takes over
the bathroom, disallowing any of the family to use it while he is
there. The boys complain again and this time they get a gorilla
which stamps on top of their car, pushing in its roof. A year's
supply of cornflakes is delivered, making the boys even more
unhappy, until they realise just how cool it is to arrive at school
with their bear and crocodile and gorilla, unlike the rest of their
class who only have a lion. And these animals do have their uses
after all.
A very funny story about competition on several levels, the tale of
the two boys will immediately engage readers and the illustrations
will have them happily looking for the array of things represented
behind the story. I doubt they will look at their cornflakes in the
same way again.
Fran Knight