Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A full moon gleams in the dusky sky as a girl, peering from a thatched cottage?s upstairs window onto a wide, sloping hill, spies a tiger dancing on his hind legs in the dark woods. ?There?s a quiet, gentle tiger/ In the woods below the hill,/ And he dances on his tiptoes,/ When the world is dreaming still.? In gentle, lyrical verse, the girl tells of the night she first discovered the animal, and how they overcame their fear of each other. She promises to keep the tiger?s secret and, in exchange, he invites her to dance with him whenever the moon is full. Once a month, since then, ?We?ve skipped in spring through bluebells,/ In summer circled slow,/ We?ve high-kicked in the autumn leaves,/ And waltzed in winter snow.? Each line inspires a full-bleed spread of their dances through the seasons: the girl follows the tiger?s lead through a violet meadow, and makes tracks through a sea of lavender blue snow. In the final spreads, the narrator reveals herself to be an old woman, sharing her story with her golden-haired great-grandchild, whom she entrusts to take her place: ?Let me give you Tiger?s hand.? An exhilarating fantasy, beautifully rendered in art and verse, this story may well make readers young and old long to join in this magical moonlight dance. Ages 3-up. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-A little girl discovers a magnificent tiger wandering through the woods one night. In exchange for keeping his existence a secret, he promises to dance with her on every night that the moon is full. The promise is kept, and the two are pictured twirling though the seasons and apparently through the years, as the story concludes with an elderly woman introducing her great-granddaughter to the tiger. The story is told in rhyming couplets that flow smoothly and contain some evocative imagery. They are nicely matched by Johnson and Fancher's luminous oil paintings whose gently smudged outlines emphasize the dreamlike atmosphere. An additional purchase for those collections needing to add "mood" pieces to their poetry sections.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
In this rhyming tale a tiger appears outside a girl's house to dance beneath the moonlight. The tiger invites the girl to dance, and they do so through various seasons until the now elderly girl brings her great-granddaughter to take her place. Though there's not much of a story here, the accomplished oil paintings give the moonlit night a magical quality. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
This kind of alchemy is all too rare, where the spaces between the words hold layers of meaning, and the images expand, expound and explode the text in lovely ways. A little girl looks out her window over a green hill to the woods, where on the night of the full moon a tiger dances. She surprises him and he makes her an offer ("If you will keep me secret, / And never tell a soul / Then you may come and dance with me / On nights the moon is whole.") Dance they do, through bluebells in the spring, leaves in the fall, waltzing "in winter snow." Then the little girl's long dark hair has turned silver, and she brings her golden-haired great-grandchild: "Let me give you Tiger's hand-- / The moon is rising high. / I'll sit and watch you dancing both, / Beneath the starbright sky." The oil-on-paper paintings fill the pages with velvety, luminous images, the tiger himself is as winsome and charming a beast as can be imagined, and one close-up of his surprised face will take your breath away. The dancing tiger might be a metaphor for many things, but its sweet power is undeniable. Magical. (Picture book. 3-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
