But even beyond that, there is a sweet story about a lion not wanting his friend to be lonely and setting off to make sure she has a nice Christmas, albeit with a few mishaps on the way.

Having now read the original story I can see the themes Stephens uses here which connect it to the original. You don’t need to have read the original per se, it’s easily accepted that Iris has a lion and no understanding of how this came about is required, but I did feel like it was missing something. Having not read the original book or others in the series first I was slightly underwhelmed, but I’ve since read the first book which is more substantial and this makes this a nice addition to the series of Iris’s numerous adventures of having to hide her lion. Iris’ lion doesn’t want to make her sad by being left behind so he sets off to join them on their Christmas. It’s fun to see Iris attempt to hide her lion but can’t quite make it work.

This is the Christmas edition of How to Hide a Lion and in this story we see Iris face the challenge of hiding her lion once more because lions can’t go on trains and therefore cannot come with them to visit Auntie Sarah. He sets off on a festive, snowy adventure to find Iris-and almost bumps into Santa Claus! After all, you can’t take a lion on a train. But when Christmas comes and the family is going away, Mum says the lion must stay behind. Iris and her lion go everywhere together. A charming holiday picture book about a girl, her pet lion, and a Christmas adventure.

How to hide a lion by helen stephens