Review by Booklist Review
In this companion to Little Turtle and the Changing Sea (2021), a tiger finds herself in peril this time. Bright-orange Aasha and her fellow tigers stand out amid the lush green forest and abundant wildlife, but soon sunny days become hotter and rainy days become wetter until there's a flood. While the adorable tiger loves swimming in the newly formed watery playground, she notices that other animals, like the boars, have lost their grazing grounds and are leaving. With the boars--her favorite meal!--gone, Aasha starts to run out of food as well. As she finds herself alone among stumps, forest colors also begin to fade. A dark, nighttime scene transitions the story to the cause of the deforestation and disappearing wildlife: humans and machines with "bright silver teeth." Wandering solo, Aasha notices another orange spot--an orangutan friend--and together they search for a new home. Once again, verdant colors and wildlife return in an untouched land. Back matter offers more information on tiger habitats, deforestation, and climate change to little conservationists.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2--Aasha is a tiger facing rapid climate change and habitat loss. Tigers and other animals disappear around her, until her entire forest home is razed by machines and she finds herself completely alone in a bleak deforested landscape with just one other animal left, an orangutan named Teman. Together Aasha and Teman forge a friendship and find a new, pristine forest to live in. The plot has a couple of small holes, vacillating between verisimilitude and metaphorical fantasy. Aasha refers to the boar as her favorite meal and yet befriends and travels with the orangutan, for whom tigers are a natural predator. And while ending a story about climate change with a hopeful outcome is certainly developmentally appropriate for the intended audience, no avenues for change are offered and the idea that displaced animals can simply walk to a new forest provides shallow comfort. Back matter contains a letter from the creators, a glossary, and short lists of some animals that are extinct and other endangered animals that can still be saved. VERDICT Packing an emotional punch, this book provokes appropriate concern for habitat loss, but it misses the mark with a slightly disjointed narrative and contrived happy ending.--Mallory Weber
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