by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 24, 2010

It's very rare to see a children's book with the word "naked" in the title - but that's what Bruno Gibert came up with in 2002. There's an exasperated lion sighing about the heat of the afternoon. But then scratching himself, he discovers...a zipper! "The lion hid his skin behind a bush...and went for a walk."

"I'm much more comfortable now," he said.

Gibert is both the book's author and its illustrator, and his drawings are simple but effective -almost like they were drawn by a child. There's monkeys lying around a stumpy tree, and the heat of the day is represented by a maize-yellow sky and an enormous white circle for the sun. There's simple drawings of other animals - a giraffe, a hippopotamus, a crocodile and a skunk. But soon they're all laughing at the pink-skinned lion in his underwear.

"Good grief," the lion-king grumbles - his own subjects no longer recognize him. Instead, he's teased by an elephant, and also a rhinoceros, and "Other animals he met made fun of him too." In a strange plot twist, the lion roars to intimidate his subjects - but it comes out as "a little meow". The monkeys point and laugh, and soon the gazelles and zebras that he's hunted are chasing after him instead!

At this point he's had enough of being a silly, pink fur-less lion - but now someone has stolen his fur. And it's here that Gibert's drawings really add to the story, since the pink-skinned lion stands in a purple tree's red shadow. When he cries tears of despair, the whole background turns red - and his face turns green. As he weeps through the night, the background is black, the tree blue, and the lion's shivering body a dull grey. "Boo-hoo, I used to be king, but now I'm miserable, and it's my own fault."

And the next morning, in front of a bright blue sky, the king is confronted by a big fat lion, who stares at the king hungrily...

The king's life is spared by the lion, but he has to make a promise. From then on he'll only eat dog biscuits, artichokes, turkey, and grated cheese. And the book ends with a very clever plot twist.

The king's persecutor isn't a lion at all. It's just a gazelle - who was wearing the lion fur himself!

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