Lionboy is already something of a phenomenon and it's only been in bookshops a few weeks.
Puffin, the children's division of top publishers Penguin, fought hard in a bidding war with two other companies to get the rights to this exciting first novel by Zizou Corder. A six-figure sum advance for a three-book deal secured publishing rights for Puffin and even before the book became a hit, Hollywood film studio Dreamworks bought the movie rights.
Heaps of hype accompanied the launch of the book back in October when publication rights were sold to a staggering 31 countries. But pre-publication acclaim can be a dangerous thing. Is Lionboy worth all the fuss and furore?
From the opening pages, you know you are about to read something different to other books. Charlie Ashanti lives in a near-future London and his parents are brilliant scientists. When he was a baby, Charlie was scratched by a leopard cub and from that moment his life changed. The leopard's blood gave little Charlie the gift of being able to speak and understand Cat, the language spoken by cats both big and small all over the world.
Charlie grows up thinking that speaking Cat is no big deal. He takes it for granted and doesn't believe it is anything special. He just gets on with being a boy, until one day something odd happens to him. He arrives home and both his mum and dad have disappeared. The Ashantis were on the brink of making an important medical discovery and Charlie suspects immediately that they have been kidnapped.
With the help of his cat friends, Charlie sets out to find his parents. The trail leads him to a mysterious circus ship where Charlie meets six lions who need his help as much as he needs theirs. The ship sets sail and Charlie's adventures really begin.
