The Tiger Rising Book Review

Title: The Tiger Rising
Author: Kate DiCamillo
Awards: National Book Award Finalist, Book Sense 76 Selection, Junior Library Guild Selection

I have read a couple of Kate DiCamillo's books and two things always strike me about them - the wonderful writing and the interesting characters who tend to be either outsiders or in some way refuse to conform to the norm. The Tiger Rising is no exception here.

The main character is Rob Horton, who bottles up all his feelings- his sadness and anger he feels at the recent death of his mother, the bullying he has to go through on the bus and in school. He bottles them up and stuffs them inside the over full suitcase he imagines himself to be, and locks the suitcase shut. When he finds a tiger in a cage in the woods behind the Florida motel where he and his father live (his father works at the motel, The Kentucky Star), he imagines the tiger sitting on the suitcase keeping it locked. He can think about the tiger instead of his mother or the bullying he must endure.

Sistine Bailey, who Rob meets on the same day that he finds the tiger in the woods handles her problems in the exact opposite way - with fists flying and feelings out there for everyone to see. Then there's Willie May, the hotel maid, who plays the role of wise woman in the story. And there's Mr. Beauchamp the hotel owner, and owner of the tiger in the woods which he hopes to profit from some how.

All of these characters come together in this wonderful tale of learning to accept and move on past sorrow and loss. And there is another element here common to Kate DiCamillo's books - the element of magic in the ordinary.

My only complaint about the book was that it ended too soon, and I felt there could have been a little more development in some of the supporting characters and scenes.

Highly recommended.