Tiger's Fall

by Molly Bang

Overview

A feisty little girl learns that physical disability can't limit her ability to make a difference.

Lupe loves nothing better than riding her father's horse, El Diablo. Fearless and agile, she rampages around her rural village in Mexico like a tigrilla (little tiger), which is her father's nickname for her. But one day Lupe falls while climbing a tree. Paralyzed from the waist down, she will never again be able to ride El Diablo. Her life might as well be over, she thinks.

At first Lupe is filled with rage and self-pity. Her family brings her to a center run by and for disabled people, to recuperate. Despite the evidence around her, she refuses to believe that disabled people can be happy and self-sufficient, and she can't believe that these people think their lives are worth living. But slowly the people and the spirit of the center help Lupe realize that she, too, has something to offer.

Award-winning author/illustrator Molly Bang brings emotional honesty and bravery to this compelling, fact-based story of coming to terms with disability.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250112187
Publisher:	Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication date:	02/02/2016
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	112
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Molly Bang is the author and illustrator of more than 20 books for children. She has won numerous awards, including Caldecott Honors for three of her books: When Sophie Gets Angry, Really Really Angry; Ten, Nine, Eight; and The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher. Her book Common Ground: The Water, Earth, and Air We Share won the very first Giverny Prize for Best Children's Science Picture Book. She lives in Falmouth, Massachusetts and San Francisco, California.

Molly Bang is the author and illustrator of more than 20 books for children. She has won numerous awards, including Caldecott Honors for three of her books: When Sophie Gets Angry, Really Really Angry, Ten, Nine, Eight, and The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher. Her book Common Ground: The Water, Earth, and Air We Share won the very first Giverny Prize for Best Children's Science Picture Book. She lives in Falmouth, Massachusetts and San Francisco, California.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 4-6-PROJIMO, a center for disabled people in Mexico, was the inspiration for this well-intentioned story. Eleven-year-old Lupe, nicknamed Tigrilla Loco, Crazy Little Tiger, is fearless. On a dare, she climbs a purportedly haunted tree and, losing her footing, falls and is paralyzed from the waist down. After an operation in the public hospital, which leaves her family penniless, an infection threatens Lupe's life. She is then taken to a village-based health center where the disabled care for one another and where she slowly begins the healing process of both her body and her spirit. Her initial emotional responses of self-pity, hopelessness, and anger are realistically portrayed, if somewhat forced. Through several experiences, one in which she heals a donkey's wounds, the girl slowly begins to see the possibilities of what she can do, but as a character she remains distant. The awkward black line drawings do little to enhance the appearance of the book. Bang's respect for the courageous work of PROJIMO is evident, but the plot has an underlying purposeful tone regarding health care in Mexico that limits its child appeal.-Caroline Ward, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Set in Mexico, this tear-inducing tale tells the story of an 11-year-old girl's physical and mental recovery after falling out of a tree. "Your daughter broke her back and is paralyzed from the waist down," the doctor coldly tells Lupe's shocked, grieving parents. "There is nothing more to be done." And so begins Lupe's heart-wrenching journey from despair and helplessness to acceptance and competence. After nearly dying from an infected pressure sore, Lupe is sent to a residential rehabilitation center. In her first novel, Bang's (Harley, p. 414, etc.) simple, matter-of-fact language allows the reader to see the real nitty-gritty of Lupe's situation without being too graphic. "The pressure sore on Lupe's back wasn't pretty. It was full of pus and blood and it was oozing around the edges." As Lupe begins to recover physically, her ferocious spirit-her family moniker is Tigrilla Loca, or Crazy Little Tiger-does too. Her initial act of self-directed behavior comes when she cleans and dresses an open sore on an injured donkey, utilizing the knowledge she gleaned from her own treatment. It's a major turning point for Lupe, the first time she's felt capable since her injury. Lupe is soon given the job of helping a severely disabled youngster and realizes that the ability to help someone else is a gift, not a gift she would have selected over having the use of her legs, but a gift nevertheless. Unsentimental yet moving, Bang's story lets the reader see and feel what it might be like to be in Lupe's shoes. (Fiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews