Nani and the Lion

Alicia D. Williams is the author of Mid-Air, which was longlisted for the National Book Award; Genesis Begins Again, which received Newbery and Kirkus Prize honors, was a William C. Morris Award finalist, and for which she won the Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe Award for New Talent; and picture books Jump at the Sun, Nani and the Lion, and The Talk, which was also a Coretta Scott King Honor book. An oral storyteller in the African American tradition, she lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.Anna Cunha is a Brazilian illustrator, living and working in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. She has illustrated more than twenty books for Brazilian and foreign publishers, been nominated for the 2022 Kate Greenaway Medal, and won the AEILIJ Prize for her work. She is the illustrator of Fly by Brittany J. Thurman and Nani and the Lion by Alicia D. Williams.

Grouchy and despotic Lion prowls the edge of young Nani’s village, frightening its human inhabitants and the other animals alike. “I am Lion, lord of the land! No one dares make noise in King Lion’s land!” [...] Everyone is frightened, but the clever protagonist knows what will soothe the savage beast. Williams’s (Steptoe winner and Newbery honoree for Genesis Begins Again, rev. 1/19) text has the cadence of a folktale, with ear-pleasing sound effects and patterns and featuring a satisfying resolution. Cunha’s (illustrator of Indigo Dreaming, rev. 9/22) beautifully textured and colorful digital illustrations center her characteristic rosy-cheeked, brown-skinned humans—and one very expressive big cat.