When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller (review)

Keller, Tae When You Trap a Tiger. Random House, 2020 [304p] Library ed. ISBN 978-1-5247-1571-7 $19.99 Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-5247-1570-0 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-5247-1572-4 $9.99 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 4-6

Back in Korea, Halmoni stole painful stories from under the noses of magical guardian tigers and hid them away in star-jars so she wouldn't have to hear them. Now, in present-day Washington, Halmoni is sick, and her granddaughter Lily traps and strikes a deal with the magical tiger who's stalking her family: Lily will find and open the jars, freeing the stories, and the tiger will heal Halmoni. The only way to free the stories is to listen to them—and, true to Halmoni's word, they are distressing: stories about tiger-women who don't fit in either society; stories about daughters abandoned by their mothers. From these stories, though, Lily learns about her family's past and begins to make sense of pieces of her own identity. Keller fills in emotional details—for example, Lily's conflicted feelings about being stereotyped as a "QAG" ("Quiet Asian Girl"), and her changing relationship with her sister, Sam—with a deft pen. Readers will pick up on the themes of repressed trauma and healing through storytelling, which are rendered age-friendly through the folkloric framework. It's a complex, satisfying story, one that foregrounds family and healing alongside a love for Korean folklore. An author's note expands on the book's exploration of diasporic identity.