We gave this to our son on his fifth birthday. It was perfect. He loves libraries and he had just gotten out of a cast, which made him extra sensitive to Miss Merriweather's injury.

The pictures are beautiful and the writing flows nicely. It's on the longer side for a picture book, which is also suitable at this age. In addition to being a really endearing (almost tear inspiring) tale of friendship it also covers the topics of jealousy and the fact that it is sometimes appropriate to break the rules.

I've recently heard that we may do a disservice to our children having all these stories about cuddly anthropomorphic animals. So yes. We've told our son that a real lion would eat him, but this is a story lion. Stories are magic and anything goes.