I chose When You Trap a Tiger as my first Newbery Medal winner to read for several reasons. First, the cover looked colorful and enticing. Second, it was a newer book that I thought might give me a good idea of what more modern children's literature is like.
...And third, it was about a girl with Korean ancestry, which reminded me of a book I finished a few years ago called Pachinko. The book details three generations of a Korean family living in Japan and the hardships they faced while being treated as second-class citizens. I don't know a lot about Korean history, so I was curious if this book would give any insight into that from a child's perspective.
And I was kind of right, in a way. The story is largely about interpersonal relationships — the main character Lily's changing relationship with her sister Sam as they both grow older; Lily's halmoni (Korean for grandmother) keeping the magic of childhood and her culture alive for her granddaughter while attempting to hide her terminal illness; and Lily's mother, who has been uptight and distant since the death of Lily and Sam's father.
Their heritage colors every part of their relationships with one another. Sam wants Lily to grow up and stop being childish for still wanting to follow and believe in the more mystical aspects of Korean culture, such as leaving out food for spirits (although it's later revealed that Sam snuck out on multiple occasions to scatter rice and protect against the same spirits she claimed to not believe in).
Halmoni is the only one who believes Lily when Lily confesses she's been seeing tigers that no one else can see. However, Lily doesn't defend her in front of some boys in the neighborhood who call her halmoni a "crazy witch lady" and ask Lily if she curses people. Lily later regrets not saying anything in defense of her halmoni, but it's clear she struggles in that moment with understanding the full weight of the stigmas and assumptions that come with being Korean in modern Western society.
Lily's mom sees Halmoni's talk of spirits and rituals as just a symptom of the brain cancer Halmoni is suffering from, as though those things are just part of a fantasy land her mother is living in at the end of her life. To her, those old stories are like Santa Claus: you grow up believing in them, but you eventually come to find they aren't real and move on to more practical things. But this book asks, "What if they were?", all told through the eyes of a girl in that confusing transitional period between childhood and teenhood.
Instead of Korean history, I got a sense of how cultural practices and traditions change through time and across places, as well as how those things are both perceived and preserved in modern times.
For example, Lily gets to see the full spectrum of how her halmoni is viewed by the rest of the town:
As a helpful spiritual expert, but only to the townsfolk who also believe in pseudoscience like TV psychics.
As the crazy lady who curses people to the other kids Lily's age.
As a poor sick woman who should be pitied because she still follows spiritual practices.
There are so many other aspects of this book I could talk about — the stereotype of the Quiet Asian Girl that Sam wants Lily to rebel against, the "bad stories" Lily her grandmother stole from the tigers in her youth that Lily returns to them, and Sam's relationship with Lily from Sam's perspective...
...but in short, I teared up twice near the end and read the whole thing in one day. It's written very simply for a younger audience, but I had forgotten how many different themes can be conveyed while staying under a 4th-grade reading level.
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#징크스 #kimdan #joojaekyung
@_MinGwa #Jinxmanhwa #jinx_manhwa #jinxchapter22 The essay about #Jinx entitled „Friends 👯♂️with benefits?💰💵“ is finished. I hope you’ll like it. Feel free to comment. Retweet/like as support. Thanks. Essay locked.
Please support the authors by reading the manhwas on the official websites. This is where you can read the manhwa. https://www.lezhinus.com/en/comic/jinx_en But be aware that this manhwa is a mature Yaoi, which means, it is about homosexuality with explicit scenes. Here is the link of the table of contents about Jinx. Here is the link where you can find the table of contents of analyzed…
Jinx / Doctor Frost: Wendy and the mirror 🔲 on the wall
#징크스 #kimdan #joojaekyung @_MinGwa #jinx_manhwa The essay about #Jinx "Wendy and the mirror on the wall 🔲" is finished. I hope you'll like it. 5807 words. Feel free to comment. Retweet/like it as support. Thanks. The essay will be locked.
Please support the authors by reading the manhwas on the official websites. This is where you can read the manhwa. https://www.lezhinus.com/en/comic/jinx_en But be aware that this manhwa is a mature Yaoi, which means, it is about homosexuality with explicit scenes. Here is the link of the table of contents about Jinx. Here is the link where you can find the table of contents of analyzed manhwas…
#징크스 #Jinx #Jaekyung #KimDan #manhwa #jinx_manhwa @_MinGwa The analysis "Kim Dan's D🦆ck!" is finished. Feel free to comment. Retweet/like it as support. Thanks. Essay is locked.
Please support the authors by reading the manhwas on the official websites. This is where you can read the manhwa. https://www.lezhinus.com/en/comic/jinx_en But be aware that this manhwa is a mature Yaoi, which means, it is about homosexuality with explicit scenes. Here are the links, if you are interested in the first work from Mingwa, BJ Alex and the last essay about Jinx “I wanna fck. ” Here…
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Table of contents Jinx - April 17th 2023🧸🥊 - Second version of „I wanna f⭐ck.“ ❤️
#Jinx #징크스 #Kimdan #JooJaekyung
@_MinGwa #jinx_manhwa This is the table of contents about Jinx. I have already written 31 essays for only 19 chapters. I updated "I wanna f⭐ck. ❤"
This is the list of essays I wrote about Jinx from November 26th 2022. I created a new table of contents, for I am planning to examine this manhwa exactly like Painter Of The Night. So there will be a lot of analyses. Please pay attention that the essays can be updated.
Bewitched (full version) (locked)…
Jinx / Doctor Frost: Belle 👸 and the Bear 🧸 in the penthouse - part 1
#Jinxmanhwa #Jinx #징크스 #Kimdan #JooJaekyung
@_MinGwa The essay "Belle👸 and the Bear🧸in the penthouse - part 1" is finished. Like announced, it is long: 7512 words. Looking forward for comments. Retweet/like it as support. Thanks. Essay will be locked
Please support the authors by reading the manhwas on the official websites. This is where you can read the manhwa. https://www.lezhinus.com/en/comic/jinx_en But be aware that this manhwa is a mature Yaoi, which means, it is about homosexuality with explicit scenes. Here are the links, if you are interested in the first work from Mingwa, BJ Alex,…
#Jinxmanhwa #Jinx #징크스
@_MinGwa #KimDan #JooJaekyung The essay "I ... hate it." 😤😡 is finished. I hope you will like it. Retweet/like it as a support. Thanks. Feel free to comment.
Please support the authors by reading the manhwas on the official websites. This is where you can read the manhwa. https://www.lezhinus.com/en/comic/jinx_en But be aware that this manhwa is a mature Yaoi, which means, it is about homosexuality with explicit scenes. Here are the links, if you are interested in the first work from Mingwa, BJ Alex,…
