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tamikan 's review for:
When You Trap a Tiger
by Tae Keller
This is more of a "Why did this win the Newbery?" rant than an actual review
2020 was a great year for middle-grade books, and I read A LOT of them this year hoping to read the Newbery winner before it was chosen. There were many I was hopeful for, but alas, this book won and I did not read it before.
Now I don't think there's anything wrong with this book other than I did not enjoy it or find it any more deserving than the myriad other books I read this year. Magical realism is hit or miss with me and this was a miss when it came to the magical elements of the story. I honestly wanted some kind of twist that Lily also had a brain tumor and that's why she was seeing the tiger, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. I was considering how I would have rated this if I had read it before it won, but honestly think I would have rated it the same. I just think there's more going on in the world than worrying about dying grandmothers and the same quiet kid learning to speak up for themselves trope. Plus, I hate when kids get away with committing crimes because plot. Yes, I know I'm not the target audience for this, but I teach middle school and I feel better about recommending books to kids when I also enjoyed them.
I expect more from the Newbery Committee. I expect them to choose something that exposes contemporary social issues. And they had some amazing books to choose from. From the Desk of Zoe Washington was snubbed, The List of Things That Will Not Change was snubbed, no love for Snapdragon (can we just give graphic novels their own award, please?), and let's not forget Three Keys, Kelly Yang's sequel to Front Desk (which I still say should have won in 2019). Most of the other books I adored got some kind of award so I won't drag this on...but We Dream of Space got an Honor?!?! Ug, that book. Oh well, at least Echo Mountain didn't win (my by far least favorite middle-grade book from last year), and there's an LGBT+ side character so the committee finally acknowledged that queer people exist.
2020 was a great year for middle-grade books, and I read A LOT of them this year hoping to read the Newbery winner before it was chosen. There were many I was hopeful for, but alas, this book won and I did not read it before.
Now I don't think there's anything wrong with this book other than I did not enjoy it or find it any more deserving than the myriad other books I read this year. Magical realism is hit or miss with me and this was a miss when it came to the magical elements of the story. I honestly wanted some kind of twist that Lily also had a brain tumor and that's why she was seeing the tiger, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. I was considering how I would have rated this if I had read it before it won, but honestly think I would have rated it the same. I just think there's more going on in the world than worrying about dying grandmothers and the same quiet kid learning to speak up for themselves trope. Plus, I hate when kids get away with committing crimes because plot. Yes, I know I'm not the target audience for this, but I teach middle school and I feel better about recommending books to kids when I also enjoyed them.
I expect more from the Newbery Committee. I expect them to choose something that exposes contemporary social issues. And they had some amazing books to choose from. From the Desk of Zoe Washington was snubbed, The List of Things That Will Not Change was snubbed, no love for Snapdragon (can we just give graphic novels their own award, please?), and let's not forget Three Keys, Kelly Yang's sequel to Front Desk (which I still say should have won in 2019). Most of the other books I adored got some kind of award so I won't drag this on...but We Dream of Space got an Honor?!?! Ug, that book. Oh well, at least Echo Mountain didn't win (my by far least favorite middle-grade book from last year), and there's an LGBT+ side character so the committee finally acknowledged that queer people exist.