A Tiger Like Me

by Michael Engler, Joelle Tourlonias (Illustrator), Laura Watkinson (Translator)

Overview

Life is more fun when you’re a tiger like me!

A little boy—um, no, a tiger!—tells us all about what he gets up to on an ordinary day: how he wakes up in his tiger den, what he eats for breakfast at his feeding spot, and how little tigers feel when they are wide awake, hungry, thirsty, or in the mood for adventures. But at night, even the wildest of tigers is happy to curl up in bed with Tiger-Mom and Tiger-Dad and become a cuddly little tiger cub.

With warm illustrations and playful text, this delightful story first published in Germany shows just how sweet life can be for a little tiger!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781542044561
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	09/01/2019
Edition description:	Translatio
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD620L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 6 Years

About the Author

Michael Engler studied visual communication in Düsseldorf, Germany, and first worked as a scriptwriter and illustrator. He then spent several years as an art director at advertising agencies. He is currently a freelance author in Düsseldorf, writing children’s books and plays for the theater and radio. He has written more than fifteen children’s books. Learn more about him online at www.michaelengler.com.

Editorial Reviews

09/01/2019

PreS-Gr 2—The German duo behind Elephantastic pair up again to bring a day in the life of a tiger, or at least a young child's day pretending to be one. Through text that reads like a voice-over of a nature show, readers enter the child's first-person narration. Waking in his tiger suit with a "woar, woar, woar," the tiger escapes the harrowing morning bathroom routine, because tigers don't like soap or brushes hitting their beautiful fur, before their breakfast of tiger flakes and blood (orange juice). Tigers like to hide, play in the snow, and cause mischief—but ultimately, at the end of the day, they like making crafts with their tiger families, and cuddling up to go to sleep. Watkinson's translation captures the rhythmic and energetic language, making this a ferociously fun read-aloud full of alliteration and assonance. Tourlonias's digitally rendered illustrations add layers while always putting the young child in the forefront. Her blurred lines and paint splotches add energy and transitions between the human world and the child's imagination, while showing the child's home as the world and ecosystem in which this particular tiger thrives. Readers will delight in finding the hidden stuffed animals that move from scene to scene on every spread. VERDICT Sure to please tigers of all ages, this serves as a great addition to early literacy collections showing the emotional learning that comes through play, imagination, and pretending.—Danielle Jones, Multnomah County Library, OR

School Library Journal

2019-05-08
This playful poem of a picture book captures a child's wildness and warmth as he pretends to be a tiger.

From the moment he wakes up and roars for his breakfast, his tiger alter ego gives him permission to safely test the boundaries of family life. Whether growling for food, upsetting his father's coffee cup, or cuddling with his parents, the tiger-child dances in hairy spatters across the page. The book's dynamic, often busy illustrations and shadowy, hinted-at junglescapes communicate myriad rapidly changing childhood feelings and identities. While preschoolers will appreciate the wily tiger-child protagonist, the story's poetic text might be a challenge for the younger range of the audience, as the unusual word choices, punctuation, and sentence structure in this translation from German are more sophisticated than typical American texts for this age group. However, child readers (and certainly adult caregivers) will identify with the book's central messages: Children can experience a wide swath of feelings, everyone makes mistakes, and everyone has complicated ways of interacting with the world. This little tiger is by turns loud, fast, greedy, clumsy, wild, wary, clever, creative, grumpy, quiet, and loving. The final quiet pages offer a peaceful conclusion to the wild narrative ride, creating a soothing finish for younger children who might be both thrilled and perhaps alarmed at the antics and naughtiness of the tiger-boy.

Wildness is part and parcel of everyday childhood, embraced here with a roar. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews