Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright

From Publishers Weekly
Thanks to Koertge's ( The Arizona Kid ) imaginative characterizations, wacky humor and crackling, authentically adolescent dialogue, his protagonist's life in tiny, remote Norbu--an economically depressed, drought-stricken central California town--seems very rich indeed. Much of this wise novel revolves around Jesse's vigilant efforts to keep his mother from realizing the full extent of his beloved grandfather Pappy's senility; not far beneath the anguished slapstick, however, lurks a tender and serious examination of how a father (or grandfather) can best teach a boy to become a man. When Pappy, an experienced tracker, returns from a desert camping trip convinced he has seen a tiger's paw print, skeptical Jesse and a gang of friends comb the countryside looking for further evidence--anything to keep the old man quiet. By novel's end, Pappy is vindicated, and the conclusion of his wild tiger chase is dramatic enough to keep readers from caring that it is also fairly farfetched. Other story lines involve Jesse's long-distance flirtation with a shoe-crazy girl; local ostrich races; and Jesse's study group, The Savage Avengers. Hilarious yet poignant cameos of Norbu residents and plenty of Wild West atmosphere provide additional zest. Ages 10-up. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up-The endless California drought shows no signs of diminishing, the local economy is in the dumps, and 13-year-old Jesse's beloved cowboy grandfather is sliding into senility. Pappy nearly burns the house down, but only after he stubbornly claims to have seen a tiger's tracks in the nearby desert. Jesse's mom starts talking darkly about nursing homes and the boy, desperate to protect his grandfather's dwindling dignity, begins hiding as much of the truth of the elderly man's condition as possible from his mother. And this is a comedy? In Koertge's expert hands, you bet! The humor is derived from a variety of sources and devices including a gallery of eccentric characters, outrageous but plausible situations, at least two laugh-out-louds and one-liners per page, and the best comic similes and metaphors this side of Sid Fleischman and Leon Garfield. Without a doubt, Koertge is a brilliant writer who is emerging as one of America's finest authors for young adults. He is also a very funny man. But let's face it: Jesse is much too mature for 13; he and his friends are impossibly witty. All of the characters (even the putative villain) are pure of heart and so darned...good. And the ending? Well, who can believe that by the family's agreeing to be "just...a little more careful," Pappy will be saved from the inevitable accidents of Alzheimer's? A good read, but one with some creaky evidence of contrivance.Michael Cart, formerly at Beverly Hills Public LibraryCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 6-10. Teenage Jesse's funny, tender first-person narrative is rooted in the contemporary scene, and the casual talk has the intensity of poetry. As in Koertge's Arizona Kid (1988) and The Boy in the Moon (1990), the place is an integral part of the story. This time, it's a small, economically depressed town in the desert hills of central California, where a way of life built on ranching and farming is disappearing. Jesse's worried about his beloved grandfather, an old cowboy with a gray ponytail. Once Pappy taught Jesse about the desert and taking care of the land and about fairness. Now Pappy is failing. He forgets where he is, gets lost in the hills, and nearly burns the house down with a forgotten cigarette. Jesse hovers over him, covering up, denying anything's wrong, scared that his mother will insist on putting Pappy in a retirement home. Jesse confides in his smart best friend, Kyle, and all kinds of people from the community are part of the story, including Kyle's Jamaican American parents, various teenagers, local ex-ranchers, and tourists savoring the vanishing culture. The plot is contrived, and the relationships are idealized--even the bumbling villains are treated with affection--but there's no problem-novel formula, neither flip solution nor doom-laden crisis. What carries the story is the comic dialogue and the sense of place and the perfect pitch of Jesse's voice, somewhere between farce and melancholy, parody and grief. Like the tiger, like the town, Pappy is a dying breed, burning bright. Hazel Rochman

From Kirkus Reviews
After his dad left years ago, Jesse and his mom moved in with her father. Pappy has been like a father to Jesse, teaching him ``about fairness or taking care of the land or standing up for what's right,'' and about camping and tracking around their small, drought-ridden California town. But Pappy's in his 80s; his memory has begun to wander, and Mom's afraid the burned pots and carelessly dropped cigarettes presage a tragic accident. Jesse, protective, takes to lying about Pappy's lapses in hopes of keeping him at home, though he's more and more taxed in trying to conceal Pappy's inadvertent escapades--and incredulous of Pappy's report of tiger tracks nearby. After one of Pappy's cigarettes does start a fire, Mom tries to place him in a home but can't bring herself to do it. Koertge establishes his characters--including some sharply drawn locals and eighth-grader Jesse's diverse and colorful friends--in some marvelously witty opening scenes; the comic banter of Jesse and his mom makes their later conflict over what to do about Pappy particularly poignant. There's no answer here; the best hope is that fate will intervene before they're forced to take away his freedom. Meanwhile, Jesse realizes that his lies, while intended to protect Pappy, have often contributed to events going dangerously out of control. A consistently entertaining novel that moves swiftly to its thoughtful conclusion. (Fiction. 10-14) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Card catalog description
Worried that his mother will send his beloved grandfather to a nursing home "for his own good," Jesse and some of his eighth-grade classmates accompany Pappy into the mountains near their small California town to look for the tiger tracks he claims to have seen.


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Teenage Jesse's funny, tender first-person narrative is rooted in the contemporary scene, and the casual talk has the intensity of poetry. As in Koertge's "Arizona Kid" (1988) and "The Boy in the Moon" (1990), the place is an integral part of the story. This time, it's a small, economically depressed town in the desert hills of central California, where a way of life built on ranching and farming is disappearing. Jesse's worried about his beloved grandfather, an old cowboy with a gray ponytail. Once Pappy taught Jesse about the desert and taking care of the land and about fairness. Now Pappy is failing. He forgets where he is, gets lost in the hills, and nearly burns the house down with a forgotten cigarette. Jesse hovers over him, covering up, denying anything's wrong, scared that his mother will insist on putting Pappy in a retirement home. Jesse confides in his smart best friend, Kyle, and all kinds of people from the community are part of the story, including Kyle's Jamaican American parents, various teenagers, local ex-ranchers, and tourists savoring the vanishing culture. The plot is contrived, and the relationships are idealized--even the bumbling villains are treated with affection--but there's no problem-novel formula, neither flip solution nor doom-laden crisis. What carries the story is the comic dialogue and the sense of place and the perfect pitch of Jesse's voice, somewhere between farce and melancholy, parody and grief. Like the tiger, like the town, Pappy is a dying breed, burning bright.


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