Penny's Reviews and Chat

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday:

Kate DiCamillo's The Tiger Rising

The Tiger Rising, by Kate DiCamillo, is a grittier novel, more along the lines of The Yearling than her other stories.  Since  several of her novels lean toward fantasy, I was surprised at the realism in this story.  It's a story about loss, grief, moving and starting over.

Rob and his father move to Florida after losing Rob's mother to cancer.  Rob helps his father maintain a run down motel for a sleaze-bag owner.  The boy keeps his grief inside, bottled up, as does his father. Their pain is so great, it's like they're sleepwalking, just going through the motions of living.  Rob has no school friends.

Rob does have a friend in Willie May, the motel maid.  She tries to help the motherless child.  Then, when a feisty new student, Sistine, arrives in town, Rob is eventually pulled out of himself.  He discovers a caged wild tiger, kept by the motel owner, who "hires" Rob to feed the tiger. Rob senses a kindred spirit in the caged animal.  He shared his discovery with Sistine, who vows to free the Tiger.  The story rushes to a climax that seems inevitable.  

Although this novel deals with grief and loss similar to her first one, Because of Winn Dixie, The Tiger Rising is not lighthearted.  The unbearable pain of loss and grief is strong.  Even though we understand their pain, we fear for Rob and his father.  Still, the story's resolution is restorative.  

I enjoyed Because of Winn Dixie more than this second book because the ending was much more positive.  It's hard to see that The Tiger Rising could have ended any other way.  It is positive and life affirming in its own way, though not as uplifting.  I still rate Kate DiCamillo as one of our great middle grade authors.  I have another of her middle grade books to review, The Magician's Elephant, which returns to fantastic realism, or realistic fantasy.

********************

Read more about Kate DiCamillo on her website:  http://www.katedicamillo.com/

*********************

Tags:

Middle grade novels, Kate DiCamillo, The Tiger Rising, Because of Winn Dixie, Rob, Sistine, Willie May, grief, pain, loss, suffering, life affirming, renewing, triumph of the human spirit