Paul Sinclair,
Shanti The Grass-Eating Lion
One World, One People, 2007.

Ages 5-11

Unconditional love emanates from every page of this delightful story. The main character is Shanti, a lion who, after being rescued as a cub and raised by people in a small village in India, chooses not to eat meat in order to prove his love for them. Shanti who in the story has a special relationship with the “Creator of the Universe,” becomes a spiritual leader to all who come into contact with him.

The narrative, essentially a modern day fable which resonates across religions and cultures, provides adventure and excitement; there are goodies and baddies, and humor too (mostly provided by the antics of Shanti’s rat friend, Manik).

The children in the story respond to Shanti’s wisdom and achieve some wonderful things, which in their turn may prove inspirational to young readers. Early in the story, helping an old widow harvest her crop is turned by Shanti into a game. Later on, he saves the life of the money-lender who has been trying to kill him. There is plenty of scepticism too: when a boy called Nanda tries to get his friend Mohan involved in his plans to take food from the town back to everybody in his village, as suggested by Shanti in a dream, Mohan scoffs, “Don’t be silly; even if there was such a thing as a grass-eating lion, and he could talk to you in dreams, how can we feed hundreds of people?  We are just two small boys.’ But love and faith together, as we learn from this fable, can work miracles...

Sinclair both wrote and illustrated the book to raise funds for the Shanti Lion Children’s Trust, whose work at present is mainly based in India. Details of “Shanti’s vision” is given in an afterword. One of the organisation’s aims is for young people to become involved in Action Clubs to make a difference, starting from within their own communities. Sinclair neatly includes an Action Club in his narrative, which should prove inspirational - be ready for clamours of “Can we do that?”

This is definitely a book for sharing, whether as a family or a class. It would lend itself particularly well to being an RE resource, for its spiritual message resonates loud and clear, whatever one’s religious persuasion.