Lion Lights: My Invention that Made Peace with Lions

By Richard Turere with Shelly Pollock

Illustrated by Sonia Possentini

Lion Lights is a beautiful and inspirational Early Picture Biography, winning the Anzisha 2023 Children’s African Book Award, 2022’s Outstanding Science Teaching Book, and is a Maine Chickadee Award selection for 2024.

Based on true events, the author, Richard Turere, writes about his experience on the African plains of Kenya as a young Maasai boy, tending sheep and goats at age six, and at age nine, as a warrior, protecting his family’s herd of cattle from lions. It was an honor and a most difficult task. Herders and experts had tried for years to find a way to keep the lions away, especially at night, but nothing seemed to work. Families needed the cattle for their survival.

Richard had little education, but he did have ongoing curiosity about how mechanical things worked and he had creativity.  At the age of 12, he invented something for about $10 that would ward off the lions at night. He was so successful that his invention is now used throughout Africa, Asia, and South America to keep predators away from livestock at night.

The artwork by Sonia Possentini, a Professor of Illustrations in Italy, is remarkably beautiful and life-like. I felt like I was on the plains of Kenya…with the lions!

At the end of the book is a section called “About the Maasai”. It tells of the hardships the Maasai have faced and continue to face (not unlike our Native Americans), how they build their houses, how they tried and often failed to protect their cattle from lions before the author came up with his surefire invention, etc. I found it to be very interesting and heartwarming.

Enjoy!