The Tiger Rising

by Kate DiCamillo

Book Overview

The National Book Award finalist from the best-selling author of BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE - now in paperback Walking through the misty Florida woods one morning, twelve-year-old Rob Horton is stunned to encounter a tiger - a real-life, very large tiger - pacing back and forth in a cage. What s more, on the same extraordinary day, he meets Sistine Bailey, a girl who shows her feelings as readily as Rob hides his. As they learn to trust each other, and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0763618985
• ISBN13: 9780763618988
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
• Length: 116 Pages
• Weight: 0.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 10 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 5 and higher

Customer Reviews

The Characters Leap Off the Page

Rob Horton and his father live at the local motel. While his father works for their keep under a demanding boss, Rob attends school where he's ridiculed and bullied. The two don't talk very much; Rob is busy keeping all his memories and emotions bottled up inside just like his dad instructed after his mother's funeral. Then Rob meets Sistine and his carefully packed up emotional baggage comes bubbling up to the top. Sistine is his opposite in almost every way - she fights her bullies rather than running from them, she shouts out her emotions rather than stuffing them deep down inside of herself. And when she learns Rob's secret, which he desperately clings to and wants to keep forever, she predictably wants to set it free. I can't say enough about the raw emotion in this book. Rob and Sistine leap off the page, and their fears and worries and trials are so very tangible to me. I can put myself in their place and feel their despair and anger, while still wanting to take them in and comfort them and argue their case to the world of adults that surround them. But they don't need me to do that, because they have each other and they have a strength buried within them that a tiger may be able to reach quicker than any adult ever could. They are clever and perceptive, loyal and fierce, and their bond of friendship is authentic and easy to believe. Watching them work through their individual pain as they lean on each other is heartbreaking, yet hopeful.

Heartbreaking, as per DiCamillo’s MO

Do you want to share a profound emotional experience with your child? You want some big talks about pain, loss, redemption and love? Kate DiCamillo will, once again, make you cry in front of your kid. That said, you’ll be looking forward to story time every bit as much as your child. Super sad, lovely story about a couple of kids who are trying to navigate the world they’ve been launched into. No holds barred, wonderful use of language, DiCamillo is the kind of writer who makes kids want to read.

A Tale of Sorrow, Freedom & Redemption...

All too often Children's books are filled with unoriginal, stock plots and characters who fulfill a role rather than instill a purpose or inspire their readers. The Tiger Rising is just the opposite. Dicamillo is an exquisite writer, who is able to probe and understand the thoughts of young readers and the problems they face. The Tiger Rising is a book for all ages. The main character, Rob Horton, is an outcast at school, his mother has died, and he lives in a hotel, in Florida, with his father. One day he stumbles upon a tiger locked in a cage in the forest behind is motel. He later befriends a girl named sistine, who is in dire need of friendship, as is Rob, and the two are faced with many life problems throughout the story. This is a story which strikes the very human condition of freedom, loss, hope, and most importantly friendship. Dicamillo is on top of her game with a story which will ring true to everyone who reads it.

The Tiger Rising

In the book The Tiger Rising a boy named Rob Horton is just getting adapted to the new changes that has been happening in his life. Rob has been lonely ever since he has moved to a new town and when his mom pasted away. All Rob really wants is a friend or two, but instead he keeps getting bullied. I really liked this book because it was really about his friendship with a girl named Sistine Bailey. When Rob made a friend, Sistine was a good friend because they were always going on adventures and doing other things. The author of this book wrote it with great detail. There is so much detail that it feels like I am with the characters. That is why detail is important in this book. By having detail it makes the characters come to life. I recommend this book because it is every thing I said, and more. It has good friendships,adventures, great detail, and much more.

Mezmerizing for fourth graders

This book totally engrossed my students. I read this short story aloud in five days; the children wouldn't let me put the book down. Not only did they listen to the story, but the students were quick to make predictions, compare this novel to Because of Winn Dixie and the craft of Cynthia Rylant. They loved the story, character, plot and narration. Of course, I read this book at the end of the year, and after we had read Because of Winn Dixie and The Van Gogh Cafe.

A Great Story

I think the book, The Tiger Rising, should get five stars because it is an interesting book. It was about two kids named Rob and Sistine. Rob had a disease. The principal thought Rob's disease was contagious. He would have to stay home for a few days and have it heal up. The only problem is that his legs wouldn't heal up.In order to avoid school, he went into the woods hoping he would get lost or eaten by a bear, that's when he found the tiger in a cage by an abandoned gas station. He told his friend, Sistine, about it. That's when the real story begins. So, when you buy this book and start reading it, you'll never want to set this book down until your done reading it.