Tawny Scrawny Lion by Kathryn Jackson, illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren, 1952.

The tawny, scrawny lion can never get enough to eat! No matter how much he hunts and eats, he’s always hungry, and his ribs are showing. He thinks that it’s because hunting is so much work that he wears off anything he eats right away. If only the other animals didn’t run so much, trying to get away from him! (Gee, I wonder why.) He tries to tell the other animals that if they would just not run so much, he would have to eat less of them. Needless to say, that argument doesn’t impress them much.

Trying to get the lion to stop chasing the rest of them, the other animals convince the fat rabbit to go “talk things over” with the lion, thinking that if the lion eats the fat rabbit, he’d get fat for awhile and leave the rest of them alone.

Seeing how scrawny the lion is, the rabbit decides to invite the lion to join him and his siblings at his house for dinner. The lion likes the idea of going to the rabbits’ house, thinking of the nice dinner he could have on all the fat little rabbits, but things don’t turn out the way that the lion thinks they will.

The rabbit tells the lion that they are making carrot stew tonight, but before they can eat, they need just a few more things for the stew. The lion follows the rabbit around as he gathers berries, mushrooms, and herbs and catches a few fish to add to the stew. By the time they’re done with all of that, the lion is too hungry and exhausted to chase the rabbits, so he accepts some of their stew instead.

To the lion’s surprise, the stew is actually very filling, and when he has eaten it, he isn’t hungry anymore. For the first time, he feels fat and satisfied. Because of that, the lion ends up not chasing the other animals anymore but helping the rabbits catch fish and gather berries for more of their amazing, wonderful stew!

This is a popular Little Golden book that kids have loved for generations! The stakes are high for the rabbits, who could be eaten by the lion, but I think kids know that the rabbits are going to find a clever way to satisfy the lion without getting eaten. I think it’s also not bad to have a story that points out that, if you aren’t healthy eating the things you’re eating, it’s okay to change.

It is currently available online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).