#tae keller

[bibliophilecats]

September 26 2024: Remember me Thursday

[balaenabooks]

For the first time in quite a while, a thriftstore book haul.

[whilereadingandwalking]

When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller is an emotional, sweet book about grief, death, and family. Lily and her family have moved to be near her halmoni—her quirky grandmother, full of stories. But not all is right in this old house in the thick forest. Her grandmother says a tiger is stalking their family, and Lily can see it. As Halmoni's cough gets thicker, Lily's mother gets more stressed-out, and Lily's teen sister Sam seems increasingly distant, Lily sets out to find out what the tiger wants, and whether she can save her family from the threat.

This rich middle-grade is a really beautiful, surrealist novel that deals with important lessons of grief, growth, and change for young tweens. It deals with tough topics, from the downfalls of silence and burying tough family stories to dealing with death at a young age to learning how to speak up for yourself when you're used to being the "good" girl, the quiet one, the one who goes along with the path of least conflict and makes things easy on mom. The fantastical element is well-done, the characters are rich, and it's a believable middle-grade point of view without feeling shallowly done. So much is happening in a tween mind, so much is churning, and Keller portrays that very well. All around, this was a great read.

Content warnings for dementia/terminal illness, grief, death.

[bookaddict24-7]

RECO OF THE WEEK!

Jennifer Chan is Not Alone by Tae Keller

Synopsis:

"A story about a girl who is alienated by her friends . . . for believing in aliens.

Sometimes middle school can make you feel like you're totally alone in the universe...but what if we aren't alone at all?

Mallory Moss knows how the world works. After meeting the cool girl, Reagan, she finally has a best friend, and Reagan makes Mallory feel like she belongs, like she can fit in this infinite universe, as long as she follows Reagan’s simple rules: wear the right clothes, control your image, know your place.

But when Jennifer Chan moves into the house across the street, those rules don’t feel quite so simple anymore. Because Jennifer is different. She doesn’t seem to care about the laws of middle school, or the laws of the universe. She’s willing to embrace the strange, the unknown… the extraterrestrial. She believes in aliens—and what’s more, she thinks she can find them.

Then Jennifer goes missing. The adults say she ran away…but where is she going? And why? Using clues in Jennifer’s journals about alien encounters, Mallory attempts to find her. But the closer she gets, the more Mallory has to confront why Jennifer might have run … and face the truth within herself."

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Check out my review on Goodreads here.

Add this book to your TBR on Goodreads here.

Add this book to your TBR on The Storygraph here.

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Have you read this book? Would you recommend it?

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Happy reading!

[the-final-sentence]

And adventure awaited.

Tae Keller, from A Giant Problem

[godzilla-reads]

—Tae Keller, When You Trap a Tiger

[bookcoversonly]

Title: When You Trap a Tiger | Author: Tae Keller | Publisher: Random House (2020)

[warwicksteens]

Caldecott Award 2021:

Lily has always loved her halmoni's stories; Korean folktales that begin, "long, long ago, when tiger walked like a man." But Lily never expected to encounter the fierce magical tiger in her sick grandmother's basement, or to strike a deal to heal Halmoni by releasing the powerful stories she stole as a young woman. Keller illuminates Lily's desperation to heal Halmoni and bring her family together through the tiger stories interspersed throughout the book; stories of heroism and self-sacrifice, of sisterhood and bravery. Yet the book's greatest strength is in its complex human characters, from Halmoni whose traumatic immigration story spurs her to unite her community through kindness and herbal remedies, to Lily's prickly older sister Sam, whose grief and fear stirred up by Halmoni's illness exists alongside a budding romance with a new girlfriend. Lily worries about her invisibility and living up to the "quiet Asian girl" stereotype she hates, but she doesn't know how else to cope with her volatile teenage sister or her mother's need to pretend that everything is okay, despite the weight of family trauma past and present. Keller weaves ancient folklore with Korean history through contemporary magical realism. She calls on the power of stories to bring families and communities together and the ability to heal by speaking to their pasts. VERDICT This deeply moving book is a must-purchase for all collections, showcasing vulnerable and mythic storytelling in the vein of Erin Entrada Kelly and Kacen Callender.--Molly Saunders, Manatee County Public Libraries, Bradenton, FL