SuitabookLittle Lion
Ann Hood
- Reading
- Before reading, explain that the story involves divorce, family separation and a missing relative. During reading, pause after the time-travel and ship developments to check how the reader understands the risks and choices.
- Themes
- Family change and belonging: Maisie and Felix want their parents still married and their previous life restored while adapting to Newport and their father’s absence abroad. The story gives the siblings’ longing clear emotional importance, but it is not established whether their circumstances improve or how the family change is ultimately understood.
- Curiosity, risk and responsibility: The twins actively seek the Treasure Chest’s time travel, investigate mysteries and follow Alexander Hamilton onto a departing ship. The book leaves its stance open to more than one reading.
- History and historical figures: The Treasure Chest transports the twins to St Croix in 1772, where they meet a young Alexander Hamilton before his journey to New York. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Worth knowing
- The opening includes parental divorce, a parent working abroad, the disappearance of a great-uncle, stolen family artefacts, dangerous-seeming time travel and the children stowing away on a ship.