Leo the Lioness

by Constance C. Greene

Book Overview

A thirteen-year-old girl lives through the very special frustrations that come with the realization that real life doesn't measure up to the ideal. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670424579
• Release Date: October 1970
• Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A very pleasant surprise

I got this book from a young person's book club when I was nine and didn't read it for 32 years, as I guess I figured I had better things to do. I recently found the book along with several others from my youth-all unread-in my mother's basement and, figuring I should really not let my mom's long-forgotten purchases on my behalf go to waste, brought them home for some light bedside reading. Leo was around the fourth or fifth in the stack, and turned out to be the best of the bunch. Greene tells a great story about a girl, Tibb, on the brink of fourteen, who is wise beyond her years and has an aversion to "phonies" that would make Holden Caulfield proud. She doesn't understand the sudden obsession with boys that has consumed her sister and best friend, nor how her role model, Carla, could fail to live up to the lofty expectations she'd set for her. Tibb is smart, funny, self-deprecating, insightful and refreshing. She also spends considerable energy contemplating everybody's words and behavior in relation to their star sign, and can thus explain, for example, why her sister who is a Gemini has a split personality. The book spans the length of one summer and Tibb does a little growing up along the way, adopting an outlook on life that is both more realistic and optimistic. Leo the Lioness had me laughing out loud in several places, and nodding as I turned the pages the rest of the time. A smart, amusing story that is as relevant today as when it was published 35 years ago. I'm glad I read it after all these years. Better late than never, I guess.

Leo the Lioness- a very good book

In Leo the Linoness, you can really relate to the book. The book is about a girl named Tibb, who loves the Zodiac. She is a Leo, and she decides that that is the strongest sign in the zodiac. She has a sister named Nina, and the best mom ever. But in summer, her ex-best friend turns into a boy [lover]. And her sisters attitude is ridiculous. On top of that, her old baby-sitter is getting married. It is a humerous story of a thirteenth summer. It is a must read. It is geat for kids 9-15, I personaly think. It is a very good book, and I think that you would enjoy it.