Lion Hand-Puppet Cloth Book

Lion Hand-Puppet Cloth Book — the one that gets a laugh

A cloth book with a lion puppet built into the back of it. Your hand goes inside, the head moves, the paws wave, and the story happens between the two of you rather than on the page. Eight soft fabric pages, rhymes to read aloud, and a lion that can roar as loudly as you are willing to roar.

Of the four Zoo Crew puppets this is the one that gets the biggest reaction. A roar is the easiest joke in the world to tell a baby, it works from a few weeks old, and it keeps working — at eighteen months they will be roaring back at you, which is the point at which a parent realises they have accidentally been teaching language.

🦁 Loud, and deliberately so

Big sound, big movement, big face. Babies startle, then grin, then start expecting it — and the expecting is the developmental bit. Anticipating what comes next on a familiar page is early memory doing press-ups. If you want the opposite effect at the end of the day, the sloth in this range is the calm one; this is the morning puppet.

📖 A first book that cannot be destroyed

Cloth pages, so nothing tears, nothing has a sharp corner, and nothing is spoiled when it goes in the mouth — which it will. Eight pages is about right for the attention span of someone under one: you reach the end before they lose interest, and then you start again, which is what they wanted anyway. The mane gives little hands something to grab that the other three puppets do not have.

👼 It goes on the buggy

Roughly 18cm square and very light, with a loop that attaches to a pram, a buggy or a car seat. A puppet you can pull out in a supermarket queue is worth a great deal more than one at home on a shelf, and this is the one most likely to stop a grumble before it becomes a scene.

🌍 And it funds conservation work

The Zoo Crew range is made by Make Believe Ideas with London Zoo, a ZSL conservation zoo, and ZSL state that every purchase supports their conservation work in the UK and around the world. Lions are on the at-risk list, which is why the range exists at all. As reasoning for a first gift goes, that is a good deal better than another plastic rattle.

What we like about it

• A soft toy and a first book in one, usable from the day you come home
• The loudest and funniest of the four — the one that gets the reaction
• A mane to grab, which none of the others have
• The grown-up works the puppet, which answers the "what do I actually do with a newborn" problem
• Cloth throughout — nothing to tear, nothing with a corner
• Attaches to a buggy, pram or car seat
• Made with London Zoo; every purchase supports ZSL conservation work

Specification

• Suitable from: birth
• Format: soft cloth book with an integrated hand puppet
• Pages: 8 cloth pages
• Size: approx. 18cm x 18cm
• Attachment: loop for a buggy, pram or car seat
• Care: surface clean only — no washing instruction is printed on it, so we would not risk a machine or a soak
• Range: Zoo Crew by Make Believe Ideas, made with London Zoo, a ZSL conservation zoo

❓ Frequently asked questions

It cannot be washed — is that a problem on a newborn toy?
It is the thing worth knowing, so here it is first. There is no care label on it, so our advice is surface clean only: a damp cloth on the spot, dealt with straight away, then left to dry flat. A puppet book stands up to that better than a comforter does, because it is a thing you hold and perform with rather than something that lives in the cot being dribbled on all night. None of the Zoo Crew range can go in a machine — the plush animals are surface wash only too. If what you want is something to be properly chewed and properly cleaned, a silicone teether is the honest answer.

Will the roaring frighten a small baby?
Not if you start quietly, which is the trick with any loud game. A newborn startles at sudden noise, so for the first weeks keep it to a rumble and let the movement do the work. Somewhere around four months the startle turns into a laugh, and from then on you will be asked for it repeatedly. You set the volume, not the lion.

Can a newborn really use this?
They can be read to, which is the whole idea. For the first couple of months your baby is the audience: they watch the lion move and listen to your voice. Around three to four months they start grabbing at the mane and the pages, and by six months they are turning them and chewing the corners. It is one of very few things on this site that is genuinely useful on day one and still in use at a year.

Is it a book or a toy?
Both, and that is not a dodge. The pages have rhymes and illustrations and work as a book; the puppet works as a soft toy without opening it at all. Parents who want one object doing two jobs — and one fewer thing in the changing bag — tend to be the ones who like these most.

Does it make a good gift?
The safest of the four if you do not know the family's taste, because a lion needs no explaining. Soft enough to post, no batteries, not the fourteenth muslin, and the conservation link gives the giver something to say. For a bigger present, pair it with the matching Lion Plush Toy — Lennon, same range, same animal, and a fluffy mane on him too.

🐾 The four puppet books

Same format, same size, four quite different performances:

• Lion — this one. The loudest, and the one that gets the laugh.
• Sloth — the slow one, and the one we would choose for bedtime.
• Giraffe — the tallest, with the most movement in the neck.
• Pygmy Hippo — the one nobody else's baby has.

The rest of the range: eight Zoo Crew plush animals, four clip-on buggy toys with teething rings, and two board books — Never Touch the Zoo Crew and Don't Feed the Animals.

❤️ From our family to yours

Carefully chosen products for babies, toddlers and parents. Browse more baby books and the rest of the Make Believe Ideas range — free UK delivery on orders over £25.