The Prince Who Walked With Lionslearning resources
Introduction
The Prince Who Walked With Lions is a historical novel about a young Abyssinian prince, Alamayu, who is torn from his family and homeland by the upheaval of a British invasion. Alamayu’s love for his homeland is made clear through his rich descriptions of its scenery and culture, yet he is almost forced to forget the life he loves as he tries to make sense of a new life in a British boarding school.
Why Don’t You...
Make a digital story about the British Empire Lit 3-14a, Lit 3-09a
Many pupils will be unaware of the extent of British power in the period of empire. You can ask your pupils to make a powerpoint presentation or movie, featuring images of some of the different countries in the British empire. They can accompany the images with facts about the countries, their culture and customs.
You can ask different groups of pupils to look at different continents.
This task could provide a way to link to the history department, with the English department teaching technical skills and the History department providing information about the content. See this blog post for a great example of how to implement this type of reciprocal relationship between departments:
Create a profile of the British army Lit 3-14a, Lit 3-15a, Lit 3-04a
Some pupils may be interested in the structure and weaponry of the British army during the period the book is set in. You could ask pupils to produce a factfile, detailing uniforms, recruitment, famous victories, tactics, etc. They could produce a comparative study with the modern British army.
Review and Rate
Seeing people as they are Eng 3-31a, Eng 3-19a
Many readers will empathise with Alamayu’s childish view of his father, as he is often in denial about his father’s potential for cruelty, and does not seem to recognise how unhappy his father makes his mother feel.
Discuss with your pupils the kind of things that cause us to delude ourselves. Discuss the reasons why Alamayu will find it hard to accept that his father is less than perfect. (You can find a good example of Alamayu’s view of his father on page 9 of the novel).
You could ask pupils to write a story about a character who finds it hard to see someone as they are, or ask them to imagine that they are writing a diary entry from Alamayu as a young man, finally facing up to the things he was never able to admit to as a young boy about his father.
Approaches to setting Lit 3-04a, Lit 3-02a, Lit 3-03a, Lit 3-01a, Lit 3-19a, Lit 3-16a
Elizabeth Laird chooses to describe setting in detail (the final paragraph of page 3 is a good example). Authors have different opinions about how much description of setting is necessary in a book: some writers (and readers) feel that too much description of setting means that no action is taking place, others feel it is important to be able to see clearly the events of the story.
Discuss with your pupils how important it is to them to have detailed descriptions of setting, and compare the approach of Elizabeth Laird with other writers. For instance, you can look at Evan Hunter’s story The Last Spin, which is mainly composed of dialogue:
Role On the Wall Lit 3-04a, Eng 3-19a
In this activity, your pupils can put an image of Alamayu on the classroom wall, and use the space to investigate the question: does Alamayu stay true to his roots?
They could investigate the following areas:
- How Alamayu retains his affinity with Abyssinian customs (for example, his disgust at seeing caged lions);
- How he continues to stand up for his country when others make negative comments about it;
- How he retains things he learned from his life as an Abyssinian prince (for example, when he refuses to succumb to his fear of the dogs);
- On the other hand, how he forgets his language, and forgets his religious customs;
- The ways in which he becomes part of the institution which killed his parents.
Pupils can display their thoughts by sticking up post it notes (or larger displays) around the image of Alamayu: these notes can display quotes from the text if appropriate.