The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo and Gaiman/Vess News

I've gotta stop reading these tear jerkers! The Tiger Rising was another great book by Kate DiCamillo. I picked this one up after reading The Tale of Despereaux and falling in love with that one. I've become a huge fan of her after reading these two books and can't wait to get my hands on a copy of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

The Tiger Rising centers around a young boy by the name of Rob who keeps his emotions wrapped up inside. His mother has died recently and he and his father have moved from Kentucky to Florida so that his father could escape the heartbreak of losing her. They now live in the Kentucky Star Motel. His father has instilled in Rob that he should not show tears over his mother's death and that he should be strong, so Rob packs all of his emotions away "into a suitcase." He does this in all aspects of his life. He's picked on at school and instead of getting upset, he ignores it. Instead of voicing his dislike of anything, he pretends to not be bothered by it.

There's a new girl in town by the name of Sistine and she has the opposite problem of Henry. She has too much anger and displays it outwardly to everyone and comes off as quite arrogant. In a twist of events, Rob and Sistine become friends.

Rob has made a discovery that there is a tiger being kept in a cage in the woods behind the motel that he and his father are living in and shares this secret with Sistine. Thoughts and emotions are shared between the friends and a wise maid by the name of Willie May who works for the motel.

The Tiger Rising, like Despereaux, faces issues head on. Kate DiCamillo is not afraid to work with strong emotions and when she does address them, she does so beautifully. This book is written wonderfully and can be enjoyed by anyone. It's a story of being trapped in a cage...having all of those emotions locked up inside begging to be let out. I can see it being especially meaningful to a child who has gone through loss of any kind at a young age.

One of my favorite passages in the book:

"I know something that's in a cage," said Rob, pushing the words past the tightness in his throat.

Willie May nodded her head, but she wasn't listening. She was looking past Rob, past the white sheet, past the laundry room, past the Kentucky Star.

"Who don't?" she said finally. "Who don't know something in a cage?"

In other quick news, Charles Vess has announced a collaboration he has been working on for Harper Collins. It is a 32 page children's picture book - A poem by Neil Gaiman called Blueberry Girl. Yay! Doesn't look like we should expect it too soon though, but it does look cool!