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Tiger Boy

“One of the new tiger cubs has escaped from the reserve!”

When a tiger cub escapes from a nature reserve near Neel’s island village, the rangers and villagers hurry to find her before the cub’s anxious mother follows suit and endangers them all. Mr. Gupta, a rich newcomer to the island, is also searching—he wants to sell the cub’s body parts on the black market. Neel and his sister, Rupa, resolve to find the cub first and bring her back to the reserve where she belongs.

The hunt for the cub interrupts Neel’s preparations for an exam to win a prestigious scholarship at a boarding school far from home. Neel doesn’t mind—he dreads the exam and would rather stay on his beloved island in the Sunderbans of West Bengal with his family and friends.

But through his encounter with the cub, Neil learns that sometimes you have to take risks to preserve what you love. And sometimes you have to sacrifice the present for the chance to improve the future.

Awards & Honors

• Notable Books for a Global Society
• NCTE Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction (Honorable Mention)
• CBC-NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People
• A Junior Library Guild Selection
• CCBC Choices
• 2017 North Dakota Library Association Flicker Tale Children's Book Award nominee, intermediate fiction
• 2016 South Asia Book Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature

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Tiger Boy

“One of the new tiger cubs has escaped from the reserve!”

Awards & Honors

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Tiger Boy

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Overview

“One of the new tiger cubs has escaped from the reserve!”

Awards & Honors

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781580896603
Publisher:	Charlesbridge
Publication date:	04/14/2015
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	770L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Mitali Bose Perkins was born in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. Her name means "friendly" in Bangla, and she had to try and live up to it because the Bose family moved so often - they lived in India, Ghana, Cameroon, London, New York City, and Mexico City before settling in the San Francisco Bay Area when she was in middle school.

Mitali studied political science at Stanford University and public policy at U.C. Berkekey, surviving academia thanks to a steady diet of kids' books from the public libraries and bookstores, and went on to teach middle school, high school, and college students. She has lived in India, Bangladesh, Thailand, and the United States. Mitali lives in Northern California with her family.

Mitali's books include Monsoon Summer (Random House), Richshaw Girl, and the award-winning Bamboo People.

Read an Excerpt

SPLASH! SPLASH! The two boys stripped off their school uniforms and jumped into the pond. Their heads bobbed as they wrestled and dunked each other.
(Continues…)

Excerpted from "Tiger Boy"
by .
Copyright © 2015 Mitali Perkins.
Excerpted by permission of Charlesbridge.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

From the B&N Reads Blog

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Editorial Reviews

02/02/2015
Set amid the tidal mangrove forests of the Sunderbans of India and Bangladesh, Perkins’s story follows the efforts of a boy named Neel to track down a tiger cub that has escaped from a local reserve (the Sunderbans are a Unesco World Heritage site, Perkins notes in a glossary). To pay Neel’s mother’s medical bills, his Baba (father) works all hours for a man named Gupta, a newcomer to the area who has been buying up property and cutting down rare sundari trees. With Gupta offering a reward for the capture of the tiger cub (he plans to sell its skin on the black market), Neel and his sister, Rupa, make a plan to find the cub first. Perkins’s (Bamboo People) evocative descriptions, boosted by Hogan’s dramatic pastel drawings, convey an intense love and respect for the region’s culture and environment. Readers should find it easy to become invested in the cub’s return to the reserve and in Neel’s fight to help create the best future for himself, his family, and his home. Ages 7–10. Author’s agent: Laura Rennert, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 02/01/2015
Gr 3–6—Set in the lush Sundarbans natural region of Bengal, this quiet, gripping tale emphasizes the deep but often fragile connection that exists between humans and nature. Passing exams will earn young Neel a much-coveted scholarship for a private boarding school in Kolkata, and the boy's family has their dreams pinned on him, feeling that a good education will ensure him a better quality of life. But Neel is too attached to the "golpata branches swaying in the monsoon rains…the evening smell of jasmine flowers…mingling with green chilies and fresh ilish fish simmering in mustard-seed oil" to ever consider leaving his home. He studies only halfheartedly for his tests, incurring the wrath of his serious headmaster. When a female tiger cub escapes from a neighboring animal reserve, Neel is determined to find her before she's snagged by greedy poachers led by Mr. Gupta, a corrupt local businessman. Gupta employs several of the villagers, including Neel's father, tempting them with additional income if they assist in the illegal effort. Informed by real-life situations in the region, Perkins avoids black-and-white characterizations and compassionately illustrates how dire circumstances affect a person's choices. Young readers will revel in the vivid action and suspense surrounding Neel and his sister Rupa's quest to locate the tiger cub. Adults will likely praise the novel's simple and clear narrative, which belies its complexity around issues related to climate change, poor economic conditions, class structure, and gender discrimination. VERDICT Sure to encourage vital conversations among children, this is a fine addition to libraries and classrooms seeking to diversify collections.—Lalitha Nataraj, Escondido Public Library, CA

School Library Journal

2015-01-10
When a Bengali boy finds and saves a tiger cub from a man who wants to sell her on the black market, he realizes that the schoolwork he resents could lead to a career protecting his beloved Sunderbans island home.When the not-yet-weaned cub escapes from a nearby reserve, Neel and many of his neighbors join the search. But some are in the pay of greedy Gupta, a shady entrepreneur who's recently settled in their community. Even Neel's father is tempted by Gupta's money, although he knows that Gupta doesn't plan to take the cub back to the refuge. Neel and his sister use the boy's extensive knowledge of the island's swampy interior to find the cub's hiding place and lure it out so it can be returned to its mother. The Kolkota-born author visited the remote Sunderbans in the course of her research. She lovingly depicts this beautiful tropical forest in the context of Neel's efforts to find the cub and his reluctance to leave his familiar world. While the conflicts resolve a bit too easily, the sense of place is strong and the tiger cub's rescue very satisfying. Pastel illustrations will help readers envision the story. A multicultural title with obvious appeal for animal-loving middle graders. (author's note, organizations, glossary) (Fiction. 8-11)

Kirkus Reviews

When a Bengali boy finds and saves a tiger cub from a man who wants to sell her on the black market, he realizes that the schoolwork he resents could lead to a career of protection for his beloved Sunderbans island home.
When the not-yet-weaned cub escapes from a nearby reserve, Neel and many of his neighbors join the search. But some are in the pay of greedy Gupta, a shady entrepreneur who's recently settled in their community. Even Neel's father is tempted by Gupta's money, although he knows that Gupta doesn't plan to take the cub back to the refuge. Neel and his sister use the boy's extensive knowledge of the island's swampy interior to find the cub's hiding place and lure it out so it can be returned to its mother. The Kolkota-born author visited the remote Sunderbans in the course of her research. She lovingly depicts this beautiful tropical forest in the context of Neel's efforts to find the cub and his reluctance to leave his familiar world. While the conflicts resolve a bit too easily, the sense of place is strong and the tiger cub's rescue very satisfying. Pastel illustrations will help readers envision the story.
A multicultural title with obvious appeal for animal-loving middle graders.
-Kirkus Reviews

Set amid the tidal mangrove forests of the Sunderbans of India and Bangladesh, Perkins's story follows the efforts of a boy named Neel to track down a tiger cub that has escaped from a local reserve (the Sunderbans are a Unesco World Heritage site, Perkins notes in a glossary). To pay Neel's mother's medical bills, his Baba (father) works all hours for a man named Gupta, a newcomer to the area who has been buying up property and cutting down rare sundari trees. With Gupta offering a reward for the capture of the tiger cub (he plans to sell its skin on the black market), Neel and his sister, Rupa, make a plan to find the cub first. Perkins's (Bamboo People) evocative descriptions, boosted by Hogan's dramatic pastel drawings, convey an intense love and respect for the region's culture and environment. Readers should find it easy to become invested in the cub's return to the reserve and in Neel's fight to help create the best future for himself, his family, and his home.
-Publishers Weekly

*Set in the lush Sundarbans natural region of Bengal, this quiet, gripping tale emphasizes the deep but often fragile connection that exists between humans and nature. Passing exams will earn young Neel a much-coveted scholarship for a private boarding school in Kolkata, and the boy's family has their dreams pinned on him, feeling that a good education will ensure him a better quality of life. But Neel is too attached to the "golpata branches swaying in the monsoon rains…the evening smell of jasmine flowers…mingling with green chilies and fresh ilish fish simmering in mustard-seed oil" to ever consider leaving his home. He studies only halfheartedly for his tests, incurring the wrath of his serious headmaster. When a female tiger cub escapes from a neighboring animal reserve, Neel is determined to find her before she's snagged by greedy poachers led by Mr. Gupta, a corrupt local businessman. Gupta employs several of the villagers, including Neel's father, tempting them with additional income if they assist in the illegal effort. Informed by real-life situations in the region, Perkins avoids black-and-white characterizations and compassionately illustrates how dire circumstances affect a person's choices. Young readers will revel in the vivid action and suspense surrounding Neel and his sister Rupa's quest to locate the tiger cub. Adults will likely praise the novel's simple and clear narrative, which belies its complexity around issues related to climate change, poor economic conditions, class structure, and gender discrimination. VERDICT Sure to encourage vital conversations among children, this is a fine addition to libraries and classrooms seeking to diversify collections.
-School Library Journal, starred review

All Neel wants to do is live at home on India's Sunderbans Islands, where he can fish, carve, and hunt honey like his beloved father. However, because Neel is identified as a boy with promise and one who might earn a scholarship to a boarding school in Kolkata, his days in the islands might be numbered. Life is hard in the Sunderbans: a cyclone has hurt the local mangrove trees and rice crop, his mother has been sick and has incurred hefty medical bills, and now a valuable tiger cub has escaped. Add an unscrupulous developer with deep pockets and tiger-poaching on his mind, and Perkins has the perfect premise for an environmental adventure. Neel's father wants to help his son pass the scholarship exam, so he abandons his principles and joins the hunt for the tiger cub in order to pay for a tutor. Neel and his sister Rupa understand the importance of the tiger cub to the reserve and to the future of the island but also respect their parents' decisions. Fast-paced action, lots of references to the local flora and fauna, and clearly laid-out moral dilemmas come together in a satisfying way. The glossary and end notes add much to the story and answer any questions that a reader unfamiliar with the archipelago might have. The only unanswered question is, What happens to Rupa? Will she get to fulfill her dream of education? Sure hope so!
-The Horn Book

From the Publisher

Sunil Malhotra narrates the story of a boy named Neel who lives on an island in the Sundarbans region of West Bengal. He is preparing for an exam that could win him a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school. But when a tiger cub escapes from the town's nature reserve, he decides he is going to do anything he can to find and save it. The audiobook follows Neel as he tries avoiding the responsibilities that are being placed upon him to improve his future. Malhotra’s narration creates a voice for each of the characters that sounds authentic and fitting. His narration, encompassing Neel's world and this diverse story, will draw in listeners of all ages. C.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2018 - AudioFile

Sunil Malhotra narrates the story of a boy named Neel who lives on an island in the Sundarbans region of West Bengal. He is preparing for an exam that could win him a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school. But when a tiger cub escapes from the town's nature reserve, he decides he is going to do anything he can to find and save it. The audiobook follows Neel as he tries avoiding the responsibilities that are being placed upon him to improve his future. Malhotra’s narration creates a voice for each of the characters that sounds authentic and fitting. His narration, encompassing Neel's world and this diverse story, will draw in listeners of all ages. C.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2018 - AudioFile

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Overview

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About the Author

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