Reviews - When You Trap a Tiger

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1.13k reviews for:

When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller follows the lives of sisters Lily and Sam as they move in with their sick grandmother, whom they call Halmoni. Born in Korea, Halmoni spins impossible tales and incorporates magic into her everyday life. She is known in her town for her eccentricity and kind behavior. When Lily starts seeing a tiger that no one else can see, she knows that Halmoni will believe her and will know what to do.
This book had just the right amount of foreshadowing without being too predictable. Surprising side stories, like feeding bullies dirt or Sam’s new relationship, add character to a story already filled with magic and impossibilities. This book includes positive Asian American representation, as well as lesbian representation. These themes are incorporated in the story in such a way that the book would be very different without them. I would absolutely recommend this book, especially to middle schoolers but also to people of all ages. Everyone can get swept up in the magic this story holds.

starryskeyed's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

stenaros's review against another edition

3.0

Read for Librarian Book Group

Two girls and their mother move abruptly to Washington state from California to spend time with their grandmother. On their way there, the younger sister Lily sees a tiger near her grandmother's house.

Good Korean folktales and good stuff around loss and sister issues.

jprisk724's review against another edition

4.0

First part of the book was hard for me me to get into...but the last half had me turning page after page and falling in love with this story.

okiecozyreader's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous mysterious sad slow-paced

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

This is a sweet story of a girl who goes to visit her Halmoni, who is sick and on the way encounters a tiger. Only she can see the tiger, and it reminds her of tales her grandmother told her. She tries to figure out these stories as well as help her grandmother. It is starts out interesting but gets slower and quickly resolves at the very end.

Authors note: a tiger-girl who asks a sky god to turn her human. What about the woman who refused to suffer and was banished for it? What would happen if she came back? What would she want - and what story would she tell? P293

“I am a girl who sees invisible things, but I am not invisible.” P287

“And what do you do with things that feel real but aren’t, quite?” P32 / ch 4

“A sleek, elegant, ruthless, magical river is hunting my family and I chased it.
I can’t tell if that was incredibly brave or incredibly dangerous. Or maybe a bit of both.” P73 / ch 11

“Ricky is someone who makes things happen. He acts without overthinking. If I want to catch a tiger, I need to be more like him. … Do you think I could build a trap with normal stuff?” P114 / ch 16

“Why does hope always come at a price?” P170/ch 24

“Sometimes with the hard things, you don’t want to talk about it. You just want someone to know it’s happening.” P179 / ch 25

Magical realism : Asian / Korean

Content Warnings