Leopold, the Liar of Leipzig

Mismatched art and text unfortunately obscure the theme of this confusing story about the difference between lying and storytelling. Every Sunday afternoon Leopold of Leipzig tells fantastical (and alliterative) stories at the zoo—about the lizard ladies in the land of Lusitana or about caterpillars in the country of Carthaginia—but a jealous scientist accuses Leopold of being a liar. Debut artist Aviram paints a deliciously forbidding court, in which "twelve of the harshest and fiercest judges in Leipzig" crowd out the accused in a full-bleed spread. Leopold explains, "Don't you see? You can make up all sorts of fantastic things, and unless you say that it actually happened , or that you actually saw something —it's only a story ." Aviram's fantasy compositions feature outlandish creatures—red felines dining on electric blue cakes, a green gorilla with a neon-red ice cream cone. But in the compositions for which he combines the real people of Leipzig and Leopold's imagined critters, the juxtaposition further blurs the book's message. Prose's text creates more gray area when, for example, "the greatest scholars in Europe proved" to the court that Leopold is a liar because "there was no land of... Carthaginia," yet young history buffs might point out that the famous (and real) Hannibal was from Carthaginia. And when the scientist announces that in Antarctica penguins "are the only creatures in the landscape," young environmentalists may well name its other inhabitants. A bewildering treatment of an important theme. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)