I Am a Tiger. By Karl Newson. Illustrations by Ross
Collins. Scholastic. $17.99.
One of the great things about childhood is
the ability to transform into anything, to believe, or seem to believe, that
you are something that you can never, ever really be. This is the concept
underlying I Am a Tiger, and Karl
Newson gives it a particularly amusing twist by having the central character –
a mouse – insist that he really is a
tiger, and never mind what all the other animals say about it.
The raccoon, to start with, points out
that tigers are much bigger and louder, but the mouse says “tigers can be
small, too,” and gives out with a suitably tiger-ish “GRRRR!” The fox comments
that tigers have stripes, but the mouse remains blasé: “Some do. This one
doesn’t. So there.”
Well, this is going nowhere fast, so a
snake, hanging from a branch, comments that a tiger can climb a tree – to which
the mouse says he could climb a tree
and in fact could climb to the moon
if he wanted to, because “most tigers can.” So a bird asks for a climbing
demonstration, but the mouse says he cannot give one because, like any tiger,
he has to hunt when he wants to eat, and it happens to be lunchtime.
And then who should show up but a tiger!
And he proclaims loudly just what he is, as the other animals – except the
mouse – huddle together in fear. The mouse just laughs: “You’re not a tiger.
You’re a mouse!” Climbing onto the tiger’s head, he talks (somewhat
unrealistically) about the tiger’s “tiny, twitchy nose,” and (even more
unrealistically) about its “little hands and feet.” Juggling acorns, the mouse
reiterates that he is a tiger who can do tiger-ish things (apparently including
acorn juggling); and then he drives the point home by hanging from a tree
branch by his tail and showing the tiger something else that the tiger cannot
do but the mouse-tiger can. By now thoroughly confused, the tiger glances over
at the other animals and asks the mouse-tiger, “If I am a mouse, what are
they?”
Well, the mouse has great answers to that
question, and in the funniest part of the book, he explains that the raccoon,
being “furry” and “stripy,” is a caterpillar. The fox, being long and red and
enjoying bouncing, is obviously a balloon. The snake, which is “thin” and
“pointy” and “hangs in trees,” is certainly a banana. And the “tiny” and
“colorful” bird, which “sits on a stick,” absolutely has to be a lollipop.
Kids will be laughing out loud by this
point in the book – in which the illustrations by Ross Collins help carry
Newson’s silly story along beautifully. But there is more, as the mouse heads
away from the now completely befuddled group of animals, only to wander onto a
rock at the edge of a pond and see his reflection. “GAH!” he exclaims. “I am
NOT a tiger! How could I be so wrong!?”
Well, of course he is not a tiger, the mouse realizes, gazing at the
reflection of his teeth, claws and tail. Clearly there is only one thing he can
possibly be: a crocodile! And as the mouse says this, Collins shows him perched
on top of a very scaly brown head out of which a big yellow eye stares
balefully. But have no fear: the mouse is sure to talk his way out of this
situation, just as he did when the tiger showed up.
I Am
a Tiger teaches no lesson and offers no particular point about
make-believe, fantasy and reality: Newson and Collins play the story strictly
for the sake of amusement, of which it has plenty. But there is a point to be made here, and parents
who read this book with young children can enjoy making it once the laughter
stops. After all, it is fine and fun to pretend to be anything you want to
pretend to be, but it also helps to know who you really are and what you can
really do. Whether the mouse has known all along and is just having fun with
the other animals, or has taken his pretending a bit further than he should
(since tigers and crocodiles do, after all, have big teeth and big appetites),
is a matter completely ignored by Newson and Collins. Parents and kids, though,
can have fun playing around with the whole idea.
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