Monty's Magnificent Mane by Gemma O'neill

Monty is a slender, sinewy lion with a thick, red-gold maneHis meerkat friends like to play with it, tugging and tickling him until he "rumbles, grumbles, and rolls." Unfortunately his mane gets dirty and matted, and the efforts of the meerkats to restore its former splendor with braids and feathers only irritate Monty. He storms off to look at his reflection in the water hole and is lured closer by a crocodile's honeyed words. Monty barely escapes the fearsome jaws that bite a hunk out of his mane. Running for home, he realizes too late that he has led the crocodile straight to his little friends. "Even though the meerkats mess up Monty's mane sometimes, he can't let the crocodile eat them!" In a magnificent vertical spread the lion roars. The terrified croc flees, and Monty's friends are saved. O'Neill's mixed-media artwork uses bits of maps on the lion's paws, the crocodile's scales, and the birds' wings. The jungle itself is minimally evoked by green scribbles and leaf fragments, while the brown water where the crocodile lurks is strewn with bones and fish skeletons. Innovative artwork and flowing, sometimes alliterative text make this an unusually appealing story of courage and friendship -- Mary Jean Smith

Monty's Magnificent Mane by Gemma O'Neill is marvelous, simply marvelous! OK, I do love this, but I use marvelous because of the MMs. Monty has a giant ego about his hair. The meerkats play with it, he struts his stuff, he admires himself in the shimmery waterhole, where there is a friend lurking, crocodile who chomps off a big chunk of his mane. So Monty hightails it out of there until the meerkats are in trouble, then he saves them. So I'm glad Monty overcame his egotism to help his friends.
But I also love this title because of the mixed media. The collage and wild colors of the mane are amazing! I mean when someone can make muddy, murky water beautiful, that's cool. And she manages to make Monty's mane look like its fire. I love it. With the mixed media you don't know exactly how that's done, but I'm looking into that. It appears to be colored pencil, some crayon, bits of newspaper and maps, and other specialty papers. I would imagine some digital coloring too.

-- Dianna Burt * Picture Book Palooza *

Gemma O'Neill is an illustration graduate from University College Falmouth. After she showed the Templar team her gorgeous artwork at the Bologna Book Fair, Gemma's first picture book (Oh Dear, Geoffrey!) was signed up before graduation.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781848779242
ISBN 10	1848779240
Title	Monty's Magnificent Mane
Author	Gemma O'neill
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Templar Publishing
Year published	2014-08-01
Number of pages	40
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.