Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen, ill. Kevin Hawkes

When you’ve worked for a system quite as large and vast as New York Public Library, it can be difficult to ascertain scope. Was Library Lion the massive nationwide hit we thought it was when it premiered in 2006, or did my workplace like it only because it featured a library and a lion (two very NYPL-ish things)? To get to the bottom of the matter I bring in Kate, and together we plumb the depths of this sweet tale of feline bibliographic appreciation. This marks our second Kevin Hawkes title on the podcast (the first being Weslandia) and our first Michelle Knudsen.

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, Audible, Amazon Music, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

I am happy to report that Michelle Knudsen is not allowing Library Lion’s 20th anniversary to go past without an appropriate amount of hoopla. As such, on Thursday, October 1, 2026 Library Lion will celebrate with me at Lofty Pigeon Books in Brooklyn, NY. Also, the Adam Theater’s musical play adaptation of Library Lion (featuring an incredible Lion created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop) will return to Boston’s Calderwood Pavilion for a third run this January 2027.

Now when this book released in 2006, it contained certain nostalgic library-laden elements that, even at the time, would have been flagged as outdated. The circulation staff member with a stamp in hand. The card catalog. A set of encyclopedias on the shelves that need to be dusted.

I also rather love that the lion sleeps in a “story corner” that resembles an area in my own Robert Crown Library Branch’s picture book area. I have to wonder if Kevin Hawkes based this on a real library somewhere.

Crossover Picture Book Theory: Remember the little girl from The Tiger Who Came to Tea?

What if she grew up, got her library degree, and moved to America? if she was six in 1968 then in 2006 she would be forty-four in 2006 (and as a forty-eight year old with gray hair, I’m willing to believe that that is Miss Merriweather’s age). As such, she would be completely blase about a large feline in a public space. Can we make this theory canon, please?

My theory about why the parents in this library don’t seem to be all that concerned about their small offspring sitting within biting distance of a wild animal is that this is the kind of library where the parents just sort of assume that the librarians are performing free babysitting, so they’ll drop of their kids and then head off somewhere on their own.

We’re not gonna lie. We were kind of hoping the lion would pull a Pierre in this scene (IYKYK).

How do you illustrate a snitch? Fair play to Kevin Hawkes for giving Mr. McBee the most unlikable tattletale stride we’ve seen in a picture book to date.

I mean, it ain’t subtle, but we’ve an odd affection for this juxtaposition of a depressed Miss Merriweather with a dying, neglected plant in the window.

If you were to score this image, what song would you use to accompany this drenched, depressed lion? Personally, I’d go with the Lionel Richie song Hello.

Kate Recommends: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Betsy Recommends: Red mulberry trees (in spite of everything…) and (far more passionately) the works of Black Forager.

Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate