Goodbye Status Quo!

Our lives are governed by rules, by laws, principles of etiquette.  Some are written, others are understood.  Within the structure of these guidelines, individual beliefs play an important part.

For some following what is, what always has been and will continue to be so, is easy.  For others, it's confusing, frustrating and not where their heart directs them.  Mr. Tiger Goes Wild (Little, Brown and Company) written and illustrated by Caldecott Honor award-winning Peter Brown (Creepy Carrots!) is about being brave enough to break the mold.

Everyone was perfectly fine
with the way things were.
Everyone but Mr. Tiger.

Propriety was pushing Mr. Tiger to his limits.  It was simply too ho-hum, too confining and left no room for play.  The beauty in being a tiger is being wild after all...right?

So Mr. Tiger decided to try something a bit different.  Instead of walking upright like all his fellow friends, he boldly lowered his body to stride out on all fours.  Not surprisingly, it was the right thing to do.

Mr. Tiger was shedding the skins of confinement.  And he liked it.  He liked it so much he did more and more each day.  He ran, he chased, he climbed and he roared a very loud roar.  Let me tell you though, there was a lot of tut-tutting going on by his fellow townies.

The day he jumped into the fountain in the central square, loosing all his clothes, was the final straw for his up-to-that-point tolerant pals.  Sternly asked to leave, he joyfully departed for the wilderness.  Away from the buildings, streets, clothing, and orderly lifestyle, Mr. Tiger went completely wild!

The freedom was exhilarating but something was missing, the comfort of the familiar.  Making his way back to his town, friends and home, he made a startling discovery.  Mr. Tiger's fearlessness had paved the way. ROAR!


In direct spare statements and examples our narrator makes it quite obvious that Mr. Tiger is ready for change.  Peter Brown's word placement and pacing create the same tension and energy for the reader that Mr. Tiger is feeling.  By placing dialogue in speech bubbles along with the narration the story becomes more personal.  We are intimately involved.  We want to roar (and will probably do so with abandon).

Toward the end of June Peter Brown and I exchanged a series of tweets.

ROAR!!! My very first copies of Mr. Tiger Goes Wild arrived! It might have been worth all the hard… http://t.co/rKIWRf2QDE
— peterbrown! (@itspeterbrown) June 25, 2013

@Loveofxena Why YES, the case cover IS different! I was wondering if anyone would notice that little detail...
— peterbrown! (@itspeterbrown) June 25, 2013

It's the care given to every facet of this book, which makes readers want to go wild themselves.  Peter Brown even goes wild in the illustrations created by trying a new technique, using a different combination of mediums, India ink, watercolor, gouache, and pencil which are digitally composited and colored.  If you look closely you will notice the fifth color, orange, which was included in the printing of the book on paper.

The jacket is a double page spread with Mr. Tiger in the wilderness.  The quote on the back,

There is a time and place for everything---
even going wild.

alludes to the changes which will occur as does the front and back cover, a textured pattern of stripped tiger fur, rough to the touch.  The opening endpapers of taupe, gray bricks are a sharp contrast to the closing endpapers done in hues of green in the stylized ferns found in Brown's forest.

The placement of elements on each of the illustrated pages, whether they are two page, single page or several smaller ones on an individual page, is impeccable; the conversation between Mr. Deer and Mr. Tiger,  the movement of Mr. Tiger as he gets his wild idea, the tall building he climbs in the gutter of two pages, or a potion of his, now, unclothed body running off the right page.  Liberal use of white space draws the reader's eye exactly where it needs to go.  Mr. Tiger's facial expressions convey his moods precisely.  One of my favorite illustrations is the two-page spread of toucans in the air, fish in the water, the series of waterfalls cascading over cliffs , trees, ferns and Mr. Tiger roaring.  You can feel joy in the air.

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild written and illustrated by Peter Brown is your ticket to a roaring good time. It's an invitation to be yourself, to be brave and perhaps change those around you.  Some rules whether written or understood are meant to be broken.

Enjoy Peter Brown speaking about Mr. Tiger Goes Wild.




Follow this link to a Q & A with Peter Brown at Publishers Weekly.  Peter Brown was interviewed at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast about the process for bringing this book to readers.  Follow this link to begin the blog tour of Mr. Tiger Goes Wild.  This link has a couple of fun activity sheets.  This links to a new post Peter Brown composed for his blog, Mr. Tiger Gets Styled.

And whatever you do, remember to Roar! at least once this weekend.

There's A What Where?

If you have a younger sibling, raise your hand?  If you have an older sibling, raise your hand?  No matter where you fall on the older or younger spectrum of the brothers and sisters line, frustration with one another is as inevitable as sunrise and sunset.

When this frustration is fed by imagination, it's hard to predict the outcome.  What's even more fascinating is when the line between reality and illusion is blurred, or is it?    Tiger In My Soup (Peachtree Publishers) written by Kashmira Sheth with illustrations by Jeffrey Ebbeler is imagination gone WILD.

Today, my big sister is in charge of the house, the lunch, and me.

What this brother wants, more than anything, is for his sister to read to him.  She has other plans for her time. Looking at the pictures over and over, while interesting is not the same as sharing the experience with someone else.  He asks her again.

She does not reply.  When he yells that he is hungry, she definitely hears him.  After heating up soup, as she is handing him the bowl, she warns him about it being hot.  He views the steaming soup as another opportunity; he asks her to read to him as it cools.  Does she read to him now?

Of course... she does not.  What happens next proves that either the soup or the boy are extraordinary.  One innocent stir and a tiger emerges from the liquid warmth; a full-blown, grown tiger.  

In his dumbfounded fright, the boy drops his spoon and yelps, "Help!"  Peeved the sister, surprisingly unaware of the tiger, hands him another.  It's up to the lad to protect himself from this ferocious feline on his own.  It's an out and out battle.  But wait...could it be?  Where did the tiger go?

Annoyed the sister looks up from her book wondering why her brother let his soup get cold.  Despite his frantic pleadings, she places the bowl in the microwave.  A scream, a sigh and a page read later, the boy is not sure about the book, soup or his sister any more.

Through the first person narrative and dialogue created by Kashmira Sheth we experience a fantastical adventure which springs forth from the simple desire to have a story read.  It's the play between the two which generates the rhythm of the story, adding to the tension, action and surprise.  Conversations between the brother and sister are so typical you can't help but smile.  When the boy is speaking to the reader about his taming of the tiger smiles will turn to laughter; word choices are wonderfully chosen.  I really enjoyed this sequence of sentences.

I look at the pictures by myself...

downside up and upside down,

front to back and back to front,

with my eyes open and

with my eyes closed.

When opening up the jacket and cover readers know this book is going to be a tad bit different and more than a little bit funny.  It's hard to miss the lifelike tiger crouched on the table with a colander-clad boy, chair and belt in hand, trying to keep it at bay.  On the back cover the boy is lying on his back reading his book, feet propped in a Adirondack chair with a seagull lying on his back, feet stuck straight in the air, next to him, also reading the book. (As long as the boy is outside the seagull is his constant companion plus he peeks inside during the story, eyes popping at the sight of the tiger.)

Pictured, using a heavier matte finished paper, on the front and back endpapers are cans of alphabet soup in rows with the frightened boy in various poses of escape, hungry tiger in pursuit.  Both sets of title pages, verso and dedication pages feature tiger skin, a tiger tail swishing in a steaming bowl of soup, and the beautiful stylized illustrations from the boy's book; a story from India.  Readers will fall in love with family's home looking like a tree house perched atop a rock island, rows of twisting stairs needed to get to the front door.

Jeffrey Ebbeler rendered these illustrations with acrylics on archival 100% rag watercolor paper using a color palette combining hues that reflect the seaside setting with the warmer colors associated with the tiger and the boy's book.  The effect is captivating.  Lots of movement, facial expressions and switching perspective contribute to the reader not knowing what is going to happen next but being more than willing to turn the page to see.  His details, the grinning kitchen clock, pasta spelling words, the patterned fabric on the placemat, and the chair and table legs shaped like paws, add to the overall appeal. 

Get ready to be entertained when reading Tiger In My Soup by Kashmira Sheth with illustrations by Jeffrey Ebbeler.  The brother and sister dynamics, the suspense, the action, the humor and the energetic pictures will have readers saying "read it again" as soon as the cover closes.  This title is on its way to my 2014 Mock Caldecott Learnist board.

Please follow the embedded links in their names above to the official author and illustrator websites.  As soon as I read this post at Jama's Alphabet Soup I knew I could hardly wait to see this book.  When I read these two posts by Julie Danielson at Kirkus and Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast (with lots of illustrations) I knew I had to own a copy for myself.