"When You Trap a Tiger" by Tae Keller (2020)

 **A perfect, magical Coming of Age story.  One of the best I've ever read**

There are some stories that tell you about a young person who believes in magic.  There are some stories that make you remember what it was like to be young and believe in magic.  And then there are some stories that make you believe in magic again, if only for the time you're reading them.  This is one of those

“Those stories come from a time when the night is black. Only darkness. And in the darkness, a princess lives in a castle in the sky. The princess very lonely, so she whisper stories to the night. And those stories become stars.”

"When You Trap a Tiger" is a truly wonderful book.  It's technically a kid's book, "middle grade" (intended for kids 8-12).  But it absolutely transcends its genre and is simply one of the most gorgeous books I've read

I suppose that's not too uncommon.  To copy in what I've said before, The Newberry Medal is, in my experience, one of the most unfakable marks of quality a book can hold.  Awarded each year for "the most distinguished contributions to American literature for children", the recipients of this award are often books that truly transcend the idea of "children's" literature to tell stories that are timeless and ageless.  "The Giver" won the Newberry, so did "A Wrinkle in Time" and "Bridge to Terabithia" and "Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry" and "Holes" and "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" . . . you get the idea.  Unassailable classics, worthy of being read and read again until the pages are worn and the spine is cracked but you still want to give it one more read.  "When You Trap a Tiger" is on that tier.  Truly

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write about this book!  It was on my "Best of 2024" list ages ago, and I've been meaning to write about it since.  This, my last post for AAPI Heritage Month, seems like it's finally time

"When You Trap a Tiger" is a pretty classic setup--a young girl named Lily moves from the big city to the countryside with her family.  She, her mother, and her older sister are there to take care of her elderly Halmoni--their Korean grandmother (and while there are some fun male characters, the relationships between women are the backbone of this novel in a wonderful way).  Her Halmoni shares with her granddaughters the legends from the old country.  Myths of tigers and magic and the princess who whispered stories into the night until they became stars and filled the sky with light

And along the way, Lily learns the lessons that all young people need to learn.  Some of them aren't easy:

“It’s in God’s hands now,” Mom says, even though her words tilt up at the end, as if it’s a question. Outside, the world goes green, gray, green, gray, and I look for the tiger, but she’s not there. 

For once, Sam’s words are soft. “What if I don’t believe in God?” 

Silence rings in my ears, and then Mom says something that moms are never supposed to say. 

“I don’t know.”

But while she is learning these harsh truths, seeing her grandmother and mother as mortal and fallible, seeing her older sister pull away as she does what teenagers do, while Lily is learning these mundane yet inevitable lessons . . . she's also listening to every word her Halmoni has to tell her about myth and magic

I loved this book because of the honest and gorgeous way it blends real life and the fantastic.  I had a big list of incredible books I compared it to up above, and I'd add in the masterpiece "My Neighbor Totoro" as well

Because when the world is telling you that magic isn't real, that sometimes bad things happen and there's nothing you can do about it . . . that's when you need to believe in magic even more

“That’s what I’ve always admired about you. You don’t give up on magic. And I was wrong to tell you to.”

This is a book about not giving up on magic

The first time I read this book, I bawled on the train while reading the last few chapters.  The second time I read this book, I bawled like the entire final third of the novel.  You've been warned

I loved this book

“When I very little, before my mom leave, she tell me something important. She say, Ae-Cha, learn this: Everybody have good and bad in them. But sometimes they so focused on sad, scary stories in life that they forget the good. When that happen, you don’t tell them they are bad. That only make it worse. You remind them of the good.”