2022 New Zealand Book Awards for Children & Young Adults
Winner - Picture Book Award
If a good picture book is a symbiosis of story and illustration, a stand-out picture book is one which includes that all-important third symbiotic element – the reader. Lion Guards the Cake is a sweetly irresistible story that invites readers to be both witness and accomplice to lion’s furtive adventures and faux heroism as he upends the notion of duty. Its faultless, inventive rhyme, complemented by rich, silhouetted illustrations, engages the reader with effortless ease and a twinkle in its eye. This is confident storytelling of the highest calibre – a joyful read-out-loud which also rewards a more intimate and leisurely reading.
Atop the gatepost at the front of a house, a stone Lion stands guard. As evening falls, the stone lion comes alive. A birthday cake has been made, and Lion takes it upon himself to go and guard the cake inside the house.
The house is quiet, no one's awake, and Lion guards the cake.