Whenever a major personal tragedy occurs, such as the death of a parent or other very close loved one, it can divide one's life into two distinct segments: everything before the tragedy, and then all that follows after it. Even if one releases one's grief as healthily as possible that mental division is likely to remain, but moving forward into some semblance of healing isn't really a possibility until those initial raw, uncontrollable feelings of despair are allowed to find an outlet. This is the dilemma faced by twelve-year-old Rob Horton in The Tiger Rising. His mother's death was a slow, predictable one, as her body methodically succumbed to the cancer invading it and systematically began to fail. But his mother—the kinder, more understanding parent, who knew him in a way that his father never has—was the parent that he really couldn't afford to lose. Rob's father was unable to be of any help to him after the funeral, lost as he was in his own maze of sadness; his best advice was for Rob to stop crying because it wasn't going to bring his mother back, not understanding that by rebuking his son for the shedding of tears, he was bottling up the boy's main physical outlet for the grief that was overwhelming him and threatening to steal his soul. Rob's inner turmoil fights its way to the surface through other physical manifestations, such as the strange rash all over his legs that just won't go away. The sadness is growing within him, yet he has no way of letting it out, so it has to go somewhere. Rob is still in the process of trying to piece together the remnants of his life when he meets a new girl at school named Sistine Bailey. Sistine challenges Rob to speak out where before he had been silent, to allow a first trickle of conversation about his mother after having forced himself to not talk about her for so long, afraid as he was to mention her around his father and not knowing anyone else who might care. Sistine has her own personal demons to battle, too, and Rob just may be able to help her confront some of the unhappy truths that she would rather hide. When Rob spots a powerful, sinewy tiger in a cage on land owned by his father's boss, he is immediately fascinated by the magnificent animal. Somehow, he begins to identify this creature of awesome power—much too awesome to be kept in a cage—as being sort of the embodiment of his own mysterious, raging grief, both of them entities too powerful to be let out because of the damage they could do. Sistine firmly believes, though, that the tiger has to be made free for everything to turn out all right, and she presses Rob to let the tiger loose from his home behind bars. Could freeing the tiger also provide Rob with the starting push he needs to confront the frightening depths of his own emotional quagmire? I must confess that I love author Kate DiCamillo's way with words. In some of her books—The Magician's Elephant, for example—she reaches rare heights of beautiful descriptive phrase, and it is a wonderful experience. The Tiger Rising might not quite match up to The Magician's Elephant, but the author's unique way of turning a phrase and creating tension among her characters is still evident. What I like best about The Tiger Rising is the universality of its situation. Loss affects every person on earth, and no matter how much we might want to be able to choose who lives or dies, that option isn't ours, and we have to find a way to go on living with what we have even if it's not enough. It always seems to be about what we have, even when what we've lost far outweighs it. Kate DiCamillo is always an author to watch, and I'll read anything that flows from her wise, endearing pen. I wouldn't place The Tiger Rising quite at the heights of The Magician's Elephant or The Tale of Despereaux, but it is a good story that offers insightful nuance to the furtherance of one's emotional education, and that makes it a valuable read for anyone. I would definitely give it two and a half stars, and I considered rounding that rating up instead of down.
Reviewed by Rusty Key Writer: Jordan B. NielsenRecommended for: EVERYONE aged twelve and up, both boys and girls. There are some adult themes, and mild, but poignant violence, which will probably be more affecting to those over twenty than the younger set, who might not feel its full force.One Word Summary: RadiantOh Kate, you’ve done it again. The words ‘Kate DiCamillo’ are becoming more than just a name, but a state of being. If you’re feeling a little ‘Kate DiCamillo’, chances are you’re a bit weepy and nostalgic, wishing to just lie on your bed all day and watch the wind in the trees, contemplating things lost. Her prior work, ‘The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane’ became one of my favorite books before I’d even finished it or mopped myself up out of the puddle of my own hysterical tears. So I entered The Tiger Rising with a ready tissue box, the bedroom door closed, and the certainty that my next few days would be spent in a wistful, heart-rendered cloud. I was not disappointed. On his program Real Time, Bill Maher once condemned a nation who believes Harry Potter to be a great work of literature as a bunch of morons. I won’t get on my soap box right now about the greatness of Harry, but The Tiger Rising is exactly the kind of work that I would point to to as proof that anyone who thinks that books meant for children can never match the intellectual complexity of a work written for adults, completely and utterly wrong. Set in an overcast and swampy Florida, in that un-nameable book-time of before now and after World War II, The Tiger Rising follows Rob, a sixth grade boy, whose mother has recently died of cancer, now living in a motel with his quietly grief-paralyzed father. Rob is an outcast at school, bullied by thugs, overlooked by adults, and teased for a skin condition that has resulted from his own suppressed grief. His misunderstood rash, however irritating, proves to be his savior as he’s sent home from school indefinitely, for fear of spreading it to his fellow classmates, who are oh-so-deserving of something virulent. And then, inexplicably, there is a Tiger. In the woods behind the motel Rob finds the cage, the great orange beauty stalking back and forth in its tiny enclosure, alone and breathtakingly out of place. Rob is enthralled, a sense of wonderment and elation brought back to his life that was stuffed down into his “suitcase of not-thoughts” with the loss of his mother. Rob’s only friend, Sistine, a new girl in town, full of outrage and her own personal loss, is brought in on the secret of the Tiger. Sistine wants to free it, Rob can’t bare to see it go. The story is heavy with metaphor, and if I were forced at gunpoint to name a flaw of the book, I might say the metaphors are occasionally a little too heavy, but I think only cynical, well-read adults would sense that. There are elements and plot turns to this story that are familiar, perhaps even predictable, but the reason why I’m untroubled by this is that the setting, prose, and characters are all so cleanly written and sharply real that the work stands on its own. It’s the DiCamillo style in full force: so frank and pure that you could never call it sentimental, even though it’s rich with sentiment. The very slimness of the book in your hands shouts that what you hold is like a comet in the night, here and then gone, arresting and haunting. So slim that I won’t go further into the plot, as there is not much more to tell without taking away the joy of its discovery. An outstanding read. For more reviews from The Rusty Key, visit us at www.therustykey.com
What do You think about The Tiger Rising (2002)?
ATOS Book Level:t4.0Interest Level:tMiddle Grades (MG 4-8)AR Points:t3.0Lexile:t 520LWord Count:t19369A story of two children suffering from loss. Rob lived at the Kentucky Star Motel, he had lived there, with his dad, since shortly after his mother had died. He is trying to survive his new school where he is harassed on the bus daily by the Threeemonger brothers, Norton and Billy. He's made fun of by the other kids because of a skin condition on his legs. Life is lonely and without tears. Rob hasn't shed a tear since his mothers funeral 6 months earlier, it doesn't matter what the other kids at school do or say he's locked away all his emotions in a suitcase, or that's how he imagine's it "He made all his feelings go inside the suitcase; he stuffed them tight and then sat on the suitcase and locked it shut". He was surviving life and school by locking up his emotions until one day, on the way to school, the school bus stopped unexpectedly, and a new kid got on the bus. It was a girl with yellow hair and a pink lacy dress.Sistine was her name. Sistine like Rob is suffering from loss, although her's is the loss suffered by a child of a divorce. She's living with her mom, who's just moved back to her hometown, taking Sistine with her. Sistine isn't happy about it and her anger comes out in her confrontations at school.Eventually Rob and Sistine become friends and act together to free a tiger, held in a cage. Things don't go exactly as they'd hoped but in the end letting the tiger free helped Rob's father open up and talk about Rob's mom, and in finding Sistine as a friend Rob had found happiness again.
—Alan
Kate DiCamillo is a magical writer and she sure writes a lot about animals so far I know there was mice, an elephant, a rabbit, a dog, and I think there was some pigs too that she written about.I am using this book as part of the Dare to Dream's Autumn 2012 Reading Challenge. The Tiger Rising will meet the task of reading a book with a yellow and/or orange cover because there is orange on the tiger, yellow on the title words and yellow on Sistine's hair :-)This was a nice, simple, and powerful story, but I still favor The Magician's Elephant and The Tale of Desperaux. (view spoiler)[Mostly I am pissed off that the tiger got shot and killed :-( (hide spoiler)]
—Dustin Crazy little brown owl
I read this book while at camp. It wasn't very exciting, or with much of a climax. Let me give you a plot summary- There is a tiger in town, this girl likes it, and so does this boy. They want to let it out, but the boy's father works for the man who is holding the tiger captive. SO they finally let the tiger go, and guess what, the dad shoots it. He claims a loose tiger would've been dangerous.... The ending leaves you with a "so what" effect, leaving you to wonder what you gained from the book
—Kyra
