The Tiger Rising (original 2001; edition 2002)

The Tiger Rising is the story of two very sad and broken children, and how they are saved by a tiger, but not at all in the way you would expect. This story broke my heart. There's something about the way DiCamillo writes that touches my deepest emotions. I don't know if I can explain how or why, but it's as if I feel the stories, instead of reading them. It's some strange retro-childhood cathartic experience that makes me want to cry myself clean, as if my child-tears could wash away all the stains of jaded adulthood. ( )

My local public radio station raves about Kate DiCamillo's books so I thought that I would give one a try when I saw it in the downloadable audiobook section. This was a nice little book about a young boy dealing with the death of his mother and the decision of his father to move to Florida. Rob is bullied at school and still grieving from the loss of his mother when he meets another new student at school--Sistine and finds a live tiger in a cage behind the hotel where he lives.

Rob’s mother has died of cancer and he and his father move to Florida looking to find a new life. Rob is terribly unhappy when he meets someone else new at school, Sistine, who is also struggling with the hope that her father is going to come and get her. When Rob discovers a caged tiger in the woods, the events that follow will allow him to understand what it means to be free, to open up and forge a friendship with Sistine, learn to forgive his father, and deal with his grief. "Rob had a way of not-thinking about things. He imagined himself as a suitcase that was too full… He made all his feelings go inside the suitcase; he stuffed them in tight and then sat on the suitcase and he locked it shut. That was the way he not-thought about things. Sometimes it was hard to keep the suitcase shut. But now he had something to put on top of it. The Tiger. Rob imagined the tiger on top of his suitcase, blinking his golden eyes, sitting proud and strong, unaffected by all the non-thoughts inside straining to come out."

See more on my blog at www.watchingthewords.com! ( )

This is a sad book but it's good and happy even though it's sad. ( )

The heart-warming story of The Tiger Rising is the story of a boy named Rob who is struggling to find himself and his best friend, a fierce girl called Sissy, or Sistine. It is sure to suck you in if you enjoy a devastating yet at the same time happy books. ( )