The Lions’ Run
by Sara Pennypacker; illus. by Jon Klassen
Intermediate, Middle School    Balzer + Bray/Macmillan    288 pp.
2/26    9781250392817    $18.99

For Lucas, a young teen orphan living in Nazi-occupied France, resistance seems impossible. When the timid and compassionate boy saves a litter of kittens, he brings them to a deserted stable, where he encounters and forms a friendship with Alice, a British girl hiding her racehorse from use by the Nazis. Lucas has a job delivering groceries, including to the local Lebensborn clinic, the Nazi-run maternity home where teen mothers, selected for their “Aryan” physical attributes, reside while pregnant with the babies of Nazi soldiers. There Lucas meets Claire, who is convinced she will be able to be reunited with her baby once the war ends. It pains Lucas that he can’t help her—but having saved the kittens, Lucas is emboldened to take another risk, and he becomes a messenger for the Resistance. These threads weave into a page-turning and ultimately triumphant tale of heroism. Pennypacker’s setting (introduced with a map by Klassen, whose illustrations of the title’s metaphorical lions serve as spot art to begin each chapter) is vividly evoked. The author provides just enough background for readers to understand the terrible, heroic choices that can be made by young people living through war. She also addresses the costs of war paid by the most vulnerable in society. Most importantly, she shows readers how a young person grows in bravery each time they take action, and that the action itself gives hope. An author’s note separates fact from fiction.

From the January/February 2026 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.