Chil­dren’s

Lon-Lon’s Big Night

Miri Leshem-Pel­ly
  • Review
By – April 2, 2012
Through this adven­ture of a lit­tle sand­fox who wan­ders too far from his Negev dessert home, read­ers are intro­duced to a hedge­hog, a jer­boa, a long-eared bat, an eagle owl, and a hyrax. The book is writ­ten in both Eng­lish and Hebrew on the same page. Lon-Lon becomes a lit­tle wis­er to the ways of the out­side world through con­tact with the oth­er ani­mals. He learns the out­side world” is not such a friend­ly place, when a men­ac­ing owl swoops down to catch and per­haps devour him as he nar­row­ly escapes into a gap in a rock. He meets a friend­ly and help­ful hydrax who com­pli­ments him for his escape tech­nique and helps him locate his bur­row by the aca­cia tree and reunite with his wor­ried moth­er, his lov­ing father, and his broth­er and sis­ter who want to know all about his adven­tures in the out­side world.” Lon- Lon will tell his tale, only after he has gone to sleep for the rest of the day. This book was read in both lan­guages to a class of 5‑year-olds with a very pos­i­tive recep­tion. The ten chil­dren in the class were total­ly enthralled by the sto­ry. The Eng­lish speak­ers lis­tened to the Hebrew, as well, and vice-ver­sa for the Hebrew-speak­ing stu­dents. The soft, pen­cil illus­tra­tions are love­ly and beau­ti­ful­ly depict the desert scenery. How­ev­er, a map of Israel and an end-note pro­vid­ing addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion about the wildlife of the Negev desert would have added val­ue. For ages 4 – 7.
Elaine Har­ris has been a pre-school teacher at South Penin­su­la Hebrew Day School in Sun­ny­vale, CA for 15 years.

Discussion Questions