Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
This is a beautiful and emotional read and leaves you thinking about it long after you finish.
adventurous
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Grief
Moderate: Car accident, Death of parent
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-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
Review TK
I'm just not a magical realism person. This story confused and frustrated me. There's a good heart here but it's not the book for me.
I thought this middle grade book about Korean myths and family was really good. There's a successful magical element, and I think the strongest part is the exploration of the relationship between the kids and their grandmother.
adventurous
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
informative
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:
Complicated
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller a Grandmother (halmoni)passes on the craft of storytelling. Lily is an 8-year-old Korean American. Her Mom moves Lily and her teen sister Sam from California to Washington to halmoni’s house on the hill. The Mom doesn’t tell Sam and Lily they are moving in with halmoni because she has brain cancer and is dying. Lily starts seeing a magical tiger straight out of halmoni's Korean folktales. Lily goes to the library for information on Korean folklore and tigers. There she meets a wonderful librarian Joe. Another library staffer Jensen is a teenager Lily and Sam befriend. Sam is a moody teenager who refers to her own sister as a stereotypical "QAG" ("Quiet Asian Girl"). The other odd part is a speech halmoni gives to Lily about The United States doing wrong to Korea (p. 241). halmoni gets sicker and Lily thinks the tiger is the reason that her grandmother is falling ill. So she wants to trap the Tiger so her grandmother can heal. Spoiler Alert: The grandmother dies with the two girls watching. The author tries to make the ending inspirational but it was pretty rough. As a Mom, I found the dialogue of the kids unrealistic for their ages. The book does have good parts but some conversations and realizations of the characters were odd. I know it won the 2021 Newbery Medal, but it wasn’t my favorite of the middle-grade fiction.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Car accident
I only picked this one up because it won the Newbury. When I started reading I was disappointed because I thought it was going to be a story told before: a family member is sick and a young protagonist escapes reality to protect a fragile psychological stability. Slowly, my cynical heart softened. The elements of Korean folktales worked well when interspersed with the main story of Halmoni's health and the sacrifices her daughter and granddaughters were undertaking in order to take care of her. Of course, I am ignorant of most things regarding Korean culture and took them as faith. I was pleased when the author added her note at the end explaining how she thought she was creating these folktales, but they must have been in her subconscious as her research uncovered connections between Korean history and folktales and what she had actually set forth on the page.
The book reminded me of [a:Meg Cannistra|17463911|Meg Cannistra|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s [b:The Trouble with Shooting Stars|43320242|The Trouble with Shooting Stars|Meg Cannistra|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563106528l/43320242._SY75_.jpg|58979732] which I read earlier this year. In that book it Cannistra's protagonist gets to go on actual journeys with the spacitricci, which could very well be part of Italian folklore, in order to escape how her family's dynamic changed after a car accident that physically affected her and her father. I enjoyed that one a bit more, but that may be due because I am more familiar with Italy and its culture and felt included in the word play in Cannistra's book.
The book reminded me of [a:Meg Cannistra|17463911|Meg Cannistra|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s [b:The Trouble with Shooting Stars|43320242|The Trouble with Shooting Stars|Meg Cannistra|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563106528l/43320242._SY75_.jpg|58979732] which I read earlier this year. In that book it Cannistra's protagonist gets to go on actual journeys with the spacitricci, which could very well be part of Italian folklore, in order to escape how her family's dynamic changed after a car accident that physically affected her and her father. I enjoyed that one a bit more, but that may be due because I am more familiar with Italy and its culture and felt included in the word play in Cannistra's book.