A lovely warm book with some of the silliness a child can enjoy. At the same time it quietly addresses the development of a child’s existence as she becomes distinct and other than her parents.

Alice’s mum and dad don’t notice there’s lion in the house for ages and when they do they have completely the wrong idea about lions. Never mind! Lion proves his worth to everyone and Iris has her little ‘I told you so moment’.

Delightfully drawn, the book owes quite a lot to Roger Duvoisin’s Happy Lion. And why not? We might imagine a community of souls dedicated to lifting the spirits of children and passing ideas back and forth between them.