#coronareading

“The whole problem with boys is that ninety-nine percent of them are, like, okay. If you could dress and hygiene them properly, and make them stand up straight and listen to you and not be dumbasses, they’d be totally acceptable”(page 41).

The Tiger Rising Plot

12-year-old Rob finds a caged tiger in the woods outside the Kentucky Star Motel, where he and his dad live as they try to forget Rob’s mom, recently deceased. The new girl, Sistine, has plenty of thoughts about what he should do with the tiger.

First Line

“That morning, after he discovered the tiger, Rob went and stood under the Kentucky Star Motel sign and waited for the school bus just like it was any other day.”

Last Line

“He lay in bed and considered the future, and outside his window, the tiny neon Kentucky Star rose and fell and rose and fell, competing bravely with the light of the morning sun.”

Thoughts

Kate DiCamillo is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. This was a short, reflective dose of DiCamillo. It captured one moment in Rob’s life, but an important, layered moment, as he tries to decide what to do about the unlikely tiger. 

I must be reading a lot of first person novels right now, because the third person in this novel kept throwing me. 

Craft Lesson

This was a previous lesson,  but the tiger discovery is in THE FIRST LINE! This throws the reader right into the story. And I didn’t realize until now that the book begins and ends with the Kentucky Star Motel. It’s an important part of Rob’s journey. 

This book was a lesson in simplicity. Or, rather, deceptive simplicity. The abnormally skinny book is 116 pages, but there was so much complexity and richness here, done so concisely and neatly.

Happy Ending