Amazon.ca:Customer reviews: When You Trap a Tiger: (Newbery Medal Winner)

2,205 total ratings, 81 with reviews

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From Canada

Valourama

Loved the story!!!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 19, 2022

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This story about a young Korean girl really seemed hit home with my child.

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Berry

Deeply moving

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 29, 2021

This is a moving, heartfelt book about growing up, grief, and changing perspectives. It's a contemporary set in the northwestern US, but brings in fantasy elements and Korean folk tales. My kid loved it and so did I.

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From other countries

David Glenn

The magic of stories comes to life

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 13, 2023

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Lily and her family had to leave California to stay with their grandmother (or halmoni) who is getting sick in her old age. For years she entertained the girl and her sister with tales from Korea about magical tigers and loving sisters. However, their grandmother's condition worsens and Lily is surprised when she's confronted by a magical tiger who wants her to return something. How will Lily be able to help her family and escape the tiger?
It didn't take me long to become engrossed in this book. The story and characters just grab you in a way that makes you want to keep going with it. Lily is someone who grabs your sympathy because she has to deal with a multitude of problems internal and external, and you do feel sorry for her. Her grandmother/halmoni is also a fun person to follow, with her knowledge on traditional Korean customs and eccentric habits. Everyone was well thought out and well written, so good job to Tae Keller.
I also love how the mystical elements are woven in to the narrative without overpowering Lily's struggles. It was fun to see tigers being represented as more supernatural entities instead of just mundane animals you'd see at the zoo. I also love the use of folk tales as an element of the story, connecting our heroes to their heritage as well as their present. I would recommend this book to people looking for a fun fantasy that also contains a passion for one's heritage.
There are some things to be aware of. One of the conditions of the characters reflects a real-world challenge that may be hard for some readers who have experienced it. There is a gay couple in the story for those who don't like such relationships. There is a use of some stereotypes (like a super-rich white kid), but it doesn't define who the character is.
Parents and teachers can use this story to illustrate to kids the magic of looking to the homelands of their ancestors and learning about their customs and traditions. This story can also be used as an object lesson to illustrate the importance of loving our family and helping them when they need our help. An activity that parents and teachers can also associate with this book is to inspire children to research some old folk tales from the lands of their ancestors, and try to write stories inspired by those tales.

9 people found this helpful

Abagail Gallagher

Breath taking, I couldn’t put it down

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 4, 2023

Verified Purchase

I’m in awe. The writing was beautiful, somehow intricate while also remaining simple. I am 20 years old and struggle with balancing and remaining me through the good, bad, sad, and evil in this world. This book healed parts of me I never would have looked at. This book will only be as profound as you are ready for. Open yourself up to the spoon fed wisdom that Tae Keller freely offers, and get in touch with your tiger side! Also get curious and go down the rabbit holes of “Begetting the Nation” and other big heading ideas that can further your understanding of Korean love and stories. This will be in my home and heart forever serving me as a Pilar of light on my own journey home… to my most authentic self.

2 people found this helpful

Kathy

Great reading gift.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 13, 2023

Verified Purchase

Granddaughter is looking forward to reading it.

Jennifer C.

A wonderful story with Korean mythology

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 11, 2022

Verified Purchase

How many times did I come close to tears while listening to this book? Let me count... 1, 2, 3, ..... 37, 38, ... Okay, I can't actually put a specific number on it, but it was a lot. There was so much going on in this novel that started out as a simple story with a tiger spirit. The feelings that Lily was dealing with, both before and after she found out her grandmother was sick, and the tension that was always there between her and Sam were so realistic that I found myself tearing up or having a catch in my throat so many times.

The feelings that are evoked by Lily's simple desire to make her grandmother better, and how she deals with what happens as she tries to achieve her goal, were beautifully written. Then, to intersperse all of that with the stories that we got to hear, both from the grandmother and the tiger, were beautiful.

Because I have seen so many other reviews complain about this, I want to address the information that comes up about Sam at the end. <spoiler>Yes, it is revealed that she is lesbian. No, it was not just "thrown in there" or "included to be politically correct." A person's sexuality doesn't have to be plot-relevant to be included. LGBTQ+ people exist, everywhere. Let them exist. And, for those who are grabbing their pearls over a MG book having a lesbian in it, children of all ages have siblings who identify as LGBTQ+; why should they not be represented in the literature, too? Sam is a teenager, so it is perfectly normal that she would be discovering who she is - and that includes her sexual identity!</spoiler>

For this book, I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by Greta Jung. I thought she did a wonderful job, and I really appreciated hearing someone pronounce the Korean words so that, when I pick up the book to read again, I will know how they are pronounced.

33 people found this helpful

Pejman boldaji

good

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 30, 2023

Verified Purchase

good

One person found this helpful

cestlavie

When you trap a tiger

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 9, 2023

Verified Purchase

It is a amazing story it is about a girl named Lily and she her halmoni is very sick she just moved to her hamoni’s house to spend time with her
But on the way, she makes a new friend but she is seeing tigers she doesn’t know what’s happening to her

Beehive

First grader loves it!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 1, 2023

Verified Purchase

For Christmas I researched books that had won prizes to help choose some for my granddaughter. This is rated 8+, so I worried a little whether it would be appropriate. Christmas morning, with 11 people all around, she opened this and her Dad said “ Oh that looks interesting, can you read us a little?” She read the first page, we were transfixed, it was a little halting read, but she got it all. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t comment on the writing or the story, but I can tell you this. While we were all in the kitchen cooking the dinner, she was alone on the couch reading this book. Leggos we’re all around on the floor, other play things, too. But she was reading this book.

14 people found this helpful

LA in Dallas

Long ago, long ago, when man walk like tiger...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 17, 2021

Verified Purchase

This is a story told by Lily Reeves in a time of deep trouble in her life. The other characters are her older sister Sam, her mother Joan Reeves (nee Ku), and her grandmother Ae Cha. However, that name is little used -- she is known throughout the book as Halmoni, which is simply "grandmother" (할머니) in Korean. Mother, Lily, and Sam live in California, but that is not where the story takes place. As the book opens they are in a car driving through rain to Sunbeam, Oregon, where Halmoni lives. Sam is vocally unhappy about having to abruptly pull up roots and go to Oregon. Lily is not exactly overjoyed, but she is employing her QAG (Quiet Asian Girl) superpower of invisibility, sitting in the back seat. Then, suddenly, Lily sees a huge tiger appear in front of the car. But they drive on and somehow don't strike the tiger.

They arrive at Halmoni's house and settle in. Trouble shows its head, and we learn why Mother came suddenly to stay with Halmoni. Lily tries to fix the trouble with magic. Her magic results in several stories being told in a traditional Korean style, although they are not actually traditional Korean stories. They are stories that Tae Keller has written for us to make her story go. These are the best parts of the book. Much of the book is about very common subjects: kids moving into a new neighborhood and making new friends, sisters arguing with each other and finding a way to get along.

The story has an unexpectedly complicated relationship with Korean folklore and culture. Keller respects and reveres her Korean heritage. However, she is also aware that in Korean culture women and girls are traditionally kept quiet and off-stage. (In this regard, of course, Korean culture is like most others.) So it is partly a story of Lily learning to be something other than a QAG. In the Author's Note, Keller explains how she came to see the Tiger as a symbol of a girl's freedom. Thus the book combines respect for Korean tradition with a kind of rebellion against it.

56 people found this helpful

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When You Trap a Tiger: (Newbery Medal Winner)

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When You Trap a Tiger: (Newbery Medal Winner)

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When You Trap a Tiger: (Newbery Medal Winner)

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