Tiger and Turtle

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Overview

TOUCHES OF AESOP AND KIPLING mark James Rumford’s fable about two unlikely rivals.

Tiger says he saw the flower first, but Turtle disagrees. Through pages of glorious color, Tiger and Turtle continue their argument. They’re worthy opponents . . . as a tiger’s claws could not harm a turtle’s shell any more than a turtle’s feet could outrun a tiger’s. The battle intensifies, as does the artist’s palette: from golds to fiery reds to luxuriant ...

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Overview

TOUCHES OF AESOP AND KIPLING mark James Rumford’s fable about two unlikely rivals.

Tiger says he saw the flower first, but Turtle disagrees. Through pages of glorious color, Tiger and Turtle continue their argument. They’re worthy opponents . . . as a tiger’s claws could not harm a turtle’s shell any more than a turtle’s feet could outrun a tiger’s. The battle intensifies, as does the artist’s palette: from golds to fiery reds to luxuriant blues, as the two resolve their conflict and become friends.

 

Tiger and Turtle is a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Rumford (Silent Music) presents a tightly crafted fable about a contest of wills. The mismatched creatures of the title, Tiger and Turtle, don't have much to do with each other, “until the tiniest of flowers floated down out of the sky, borne aloft, we think, by a spring breeze.” In a study of the way arguments escalate—whether between tigers and turtles, small children, or nations—the animals' weaknesses prolong the ensuing conflict and harden their resolve to win. Their inadvertent discovery that there are thousands of other flowers like the one they have been fighting over makes a suitable moral lesson. The animals are boldly stroked and simply colored; the intricacy lies in the background, composed of screenlike traceries of paisley textile designs from India and Pakistan with the grain of handmade paper visible underneath. Rumford's pyrotechnical imagination soars in the book's brief introduction, as he envisions an Afghan scribe telling him the tale, “twining a ribbon of Persian words across the page, whisper-singing the story.” It's a tantalizing preview of a tale whose simplicity belies physical comedy and emotional truth. Ages 4-8. (May)
Children's Literature - Uma Krishnaswami
Rumford (Silent Music) brings the flair of his storytelling voice to this colorful tale. The opening text, in which the author imagines a source for the story in the person of a letter carrier in Kabul, carries a marginally Orientalist flavor. Adult readers may find the metafictional structure interesting, but that preface can easily be dispensed with for the youngest of listeners. The story itself is a lively fable of a conflict between characters who have learned to ignore each other, until a flower wafting down on a breeze sets off an intense rivalry between them. The action proceeds forward in cleverly executed lurches and swipes, with flower and competing contenders covering vast distances, all the way up to the clouds and then down to the bottom of a pond. Turtle's folly lies in "forgetting how lucky she was to be alive," Tiger's in assuming prematurely that he is superior in strength. Up again and down once more, the story turns could as well be applicable to those two South Asian countries—the ones often referred to as "nuclear rivals" in the Western media. The illustration backdrops feature the paisley and floral designs ubiquitous in the textiles of the region. Given the subtleties of this book, with implications ranging from small and personal to global, these artistic choices hardly seem a coincidence. The friendship achieved by Tiger and Turtle ("happily for them / and for our story") may simply be Rumford doing that thing that fabulists do best: setting the world to rights in story. This title is an interesting and thought-provoking work from a talented creator of picture books. Reviewer: Uma Krishnaswami
School Library Journal
Gr 1–3—Inspired by an Indian tale told to Rumford by an Afghani letter writer, this story recounts a quarrel between a tiger and turtle. They usually ignore one another, but when a flower falls between them, each one claims it. The fight that ensues sends the flower out of reach, and both animals seek revenge for their lost treasure. Tiger swats turtle dangerously high, but he lands safely in a pond. When tiger seeks solace in the same pond, turtle bites him and remains clamped to his back. To detach his tormentor, tiger springs forward, leading them both to a precipice. But "happily for them/and for [this] story," their landing is not disastrous, and they learn an important lesson in the bargain. Behind most illustrations are designs inspired by "those used by Indians and Pakistanis to decorate their shawls, rugs, and jali windows," painted on handmade Chinese paper. The stylized animals are heavily outlined in black and are striking against backgrounds of different gradations of orange. When tiger races away to shake off turtle, Rumford depicts his legs as thick black circles of motion resembling car tires. The brief text is well paced, with repeated rising and falling action, and the resolution of the most suspenseful moments requires a page turn. Read this tale aloud along with stories from Eunice de Souza's 101 Folktales from India (Penguin, 2005) for a lively storyhour.—Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781596434165
  • Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
  • Publication date: 4/27/2010
  • Pages: 32
  • Sales rank: 1,310,769
  • Age range: 4 - 8 Years
  • Product dimensions: 9.10 (w) x 9.10 (h) x 0.50 (d)

Meet the Author

JAMES RUMFORD is the author of SILENT MUSICE: A STORY OF BAGHDAD, an ALA Notable Children’s Book, winner of a 2009 Jane Addams Honor, and a Charlotte Zolotow Award Honor. He lives in Honolulu, Hawaii.

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