When You Trap a Tiger - Tae Keller - ★★

AUTHOR: Tae Keller
GENRE: Middle-Grade Fantasy
PUBLICATION DATE: January 28, 2020
RATING: 2 stars.

In a Nutshell: Such a disappointment! I had high expectations from this Newbery Medal winner as it promised to have some amazing OwnVoices writing and Korean folktales. Unfortunately, the execution was more YA than MG, and the myriad elements didn’t come together sensibly. This is an outlier review.


Plot Preview:
Eleven-year-old Lily, along with her mother and her elder sister Sam, has moved to the opposite coast to stay with her sick Halmoni (Korean for ‘grandmother’.) When Lily keeps spotting a tiger that no one else seems to see, only Halmoni believes her, and reveals to her a secret: Halmoni had stolen something from the tiger long ago, which the tiger now wants back. Now Lily has the tough tasks of keeping safe from the dangerous tiger as well as protecting her grandma.
The story comes to us in Lily’s first-person point of view.


I like middle-grade fiction way more than YA fiction. I enjoy magical realism. I love folktales and fairy tales. I adore OwnVoices works. I appreciate inclusivity in books. I’ve enjoyed whatever Newbery titles I have read so far. I should have LOVED this book! Never expected this poor outcome. ☹


Bookish Yays:
🐯 The tiger and all scenes connected to her. (Yes, the tiger is a female.) Whatever little glimpses we get of the tiger’s personality are interesting.

🐯 The fables sprinkled randomly throughout the book – engrossing and providing a genuine feel of Korean folklore.

🐯 The author's note, which shows how and why she wrote this book. Heartfelt!

🐯 That stunning cover!


Bookish Mixed Bags:
🐾 The portrayal of introversion: Many scenes endeared Lily to me, especially as she considers herself invisible and I could actually see why she felt that. However, her vulnerability seems to come and go in between scenes and her thoughts get somewhat repetitive at times. I was especially annoyed by her constant refrain of not wanting to become a “QAG” (a Quiet Asian Girl). Introverts always seem to be drawing the short end of the stick in this genre. I wish authors would let kids know that it is perfectly fine to be a quiet introvert.

🐾 The main reason we pick up OwnVoices works is to get a first-hand view of the culture. There are some interesting bits of Korean heritage in this plot, especially in the fables and *some* of the rituals. But somehow, the Korean representation in the book feels very stock, if you know what I mean. I’m not a Korean nor do I have much awareness of the Korean language or culture, so I don’t know why I feel this or how to explain this better. But there is only stuff that sounds exotic and is still familiar. I wish it went beyond the typical.

🐾 The grandmother-granddaughter relationship shared by Halmoni and Lily is written well, But all the other key relationships, especially between the mothers and daughters (<i>Halmoni and the girls’ mom and the two sisters with their mom) and the two sisters with each other, were quite vague. The emotions didn’t come out strongly or convincingly. 


Bookish Nays:
πŸ… Though Lily is a middle-grader, the book is strongly YA in tone, with its self-absorbed storyline, fretful protagonist, and the flat representation of most adults. YA and I simply aren’t meant to be.

πŸ… A children’s book with kids lying, sneaking out of windows, manipulating and guilt-tripping younger siblings and no one gets any comeuppance? Not for me.

πŸ… The plot is paper-thin and has plenty of loopholes as well. There’s no logical reason as to why the girls’ mom didn’t tell them about a permanent shift in their residence until just fifteen days prior. The whole ‘stealing stories’ track was poorly defined. The content also tries to shove in too many subplots. The book would have worked better for me had the focus been mainly on the tiger and the magical realism, as the cover and the title promised.

πŸ… On that note, the magical realism itself is not written well. It leaves many things unexplained. I don’t expect logical details in fantastical stories, but by mentioning towards the end that the tiger could just have been a result of a hallucination, the author dropped a bombshell and left it there. Is it magical realism? Hallucination? Coping mechanism? Not answered.

πŸ… Almost all the characters are flat. Lily is a 6th grader who sounds more like a 6-year-old. Lily’s elder sister Sam could have been a wonderful rebel character as it is rare to see a Goth Asian girl in any fictional work. However, she ends up as a caricature of both Korean and Goth characteristics. Their mom barely gets any character development. Halmoni’s backstory is the vaguest, which is weird as her actions drive the present issue. There is a curious lack of impactful male characters. I didn’t feel empathy towards any character.

πŸ… The final chapter suddenly shoves in a lesbian angle into one of the character’s arcs. I wish this had been better explored. Keeping it as a reveal reserved for the final chapter didn’t make sense as the earlier clues are too subtle. Moreover, I don’t get why every FF pairing has to forcibly end up as a couple. Even if it is the case, at least show some build-up to the relationship! Here, the plot development felt more like an afterthought, when they suddenly went from barely-acquaintances to lovers. Not well written at all!


Considering that this was the winner of the 2021 Newbery Medal, I had much higher expectations. I had hoped for something on the lines of Grace Lin’s ‘Where The Mountain Meets the Moon’, which was a Newbery nominee in 2010. But this book just didn’t work out for me. The magic should have been more, the character development should have been better, and the plot should have been more structured.

In short, this was not a hit for me. But mine is very much an outlier review, and clearly, the Newbery judges also disagree. So please read the other reviews and take an informed decision. If you do go ahead, please note that the content has many triggers; please check online before handing this book over to your child.

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