Facing Fears: Lionheart by Richard Collingridge

THERE CAN'T BE.

THERE CAN'T BE.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MONSTERS.

BUT WHAT'S THAT SOUND?

Things that go bump in the night! Anyone would be worried. And Richard, even in his lion pajamas and maned sleeping cap, can't help being scared.

He snatches up his plush toy Lionheart and runs and runs and runs.

His flight takes him through streets and over hills and into tall woods, dropping his Lionheart along the way, until he finds himself into fantasy forest with magical animals.

SOME MEAN, SOME HAIRY.

SOME SWEET, SOME SCARY.

Realizing that he's lost his Lionheart, Richard turns and goes back his own track, until he runs right into an enormous lion. He stands his ground and tilts his head back to look at the lion's face--and recognizes him.

IT WAS LIONHEART!

BUT HE WASN'T A TOY ANYMORE.

With his faithful companion beside him, Richard is not scared. He is Richard the Lionhearted himself!

And Richard ROARS in the face of fear and finds himself back home, safe in bed, with his Lionheart still beside him.

Richard Collingridge's lovely new picture book, Lionheart (Scholastic Press, 2015) takes a walk on the wild side to face up to all those scary thoughts that come to kids (and adults, too) in the dark of the night. Collingridge's language is lyrical, but his lush illustrations lift his story above the usual and into surreal fantastical scenes, with lost cities of ancient Mayan temples in a mythical woodland landscape of the mind. Some have compared this story to Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, and they are similar in their confrontation of the teeming emotions of the subconscious, but whereas Max faced down his own anger, Richard wins the fight with his own irrational fears, just in time for sleep and what we know will be sweet dreams this time.