A review by lizzillia
Tyger by SF Said

4.5

Longlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal 2024. This book also won the 2023 British Book Award for Children's Fiction Book of the Year. This book gave me William Blake vibes with its ideas of spirituality, and of course Tyger. Set in an alternative history, we are in a London where the Empire never ended, where slavery was never abolished, where 'foreigners' live in a ghetto and the rich and powerful control everything. Although London born, because of their parentage, Adam and Zadie are made to feel like outsiders in a world where the rich spit upon those who are different and who hang those who cannot repay debts. When Adam finds a mythical creature - Tyger - who is not only injured but is also being hunted, a friendship grows. Tyger leads Adam, and Zadie, on a spiritual journey to help them to unlock the powers that are inside them and once these powers/these gifts have been awakened, then the two children have to display the utmost courage to protect Tyger and to help her to reach safety as a mob rages through the city, determined to rid the city of the 'foreigner', blaming them for the oppression that they live under, when in truth it is the lords and ladies, the pale men in charge who are the oppressors and not those in the ghetto. There is a magic in this story, and the illustrations are gorgeous. And of course - we have Tyger, and aren't all stories better with a tiger in them? The book is listed as being for 8-12s but I wonder, because of the execution scenes in here and themes of racism and prejudice, 8 might be a little too young.