Tiger Trail

ANNOTATION

Alone a mother tiger cares for her two newborn cubs and later teaches them to hunt, swim, and care for themselves.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

I am the tigress I walk alone. No pack no pride no mate helps me survive.

A tigress must teach her cubs to be independent. She is both tender and stern as she carries her kits to safety, snarls to teach them manners, and demonstrates swimming, stalking, and hunting. And while the tigress is a powerful hunter, danger lurks in her wild surroundings....

Suspense simmers in this evocative exploration of tigers and how they survive. Kay Winters's text is bold and dramatic like the tigress herself, yet packed with information about these amazing animals. Laura Regan's lush artwork, alive with vivid detail, captures the many facets of the tigress and her cubs — proud, vulnerable, ferocious, majestic. Tiger Trail is a wild yet poignant picture book that takes the reader into the land and lives of the largest of cats.

About the Author:
Kay Winters was a classroom teacher, college instructor, and consultant for the American International Schools before she began her writing career. Her books for children include Did You See What I Saw?: Poems About School, The Teeny Tiny Ghost, Who's Haunting the Teeny Tiny Ghost?, and several chapter books. Kay and Laura collaborated on Wolf Watch, which was an American Bookseller "Pick of the Lists" and a Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year. Kay lives in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, with her husband, and she frequently speaks at conferences and schools.

FROM THE CRITICS

Children's Literature

A tigress raises her cubs in this picture poem of a journey from solitude through the pulsing rhythms of a life in the jungle, to solitude again. The text is simple and spare, and the brief stanzas lend themselves well to repeated reading out loud. Regan's tigress images, in oil and gouache, are majestic. The eyes are haunting and direct. The tender muzzle is backed by tooth and claw. The kits have adorable babyanimal faces that make you flip back for a second look. The chital, langur and peacock place this work in a forest in the Indian subcontinent. The educational use of this book would have been enhanced by a clearer identification of setting, either in text or afterword. 2000, Simon and Schuster, Ages 4 to 8, $16.95. Reviewer: Uma Krishnaswami

School Library Journal

Gr 1-4-In poetic text, Winters writes about short episodes in a big cat's life: in the den with her kits, hunting, in danger from a leopard, teaching her young to swim and hunt. The story begins and ends with the words, "I am the tigress. I walk alone," thus leaving out any information about mating. Regan's gorgeous oil-and-gouache illustrations cover the double-page spreads and complement the drama of the text. A good first introduction to this majestic animal that will have youngsters clamoring for more.-Sally Bates Goodroe, Harris County Public Library, Houston, TX Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The author and illustrator of Wolf Watch (1997) here team up again to let the tigress speak: "I am the tigress. / I walk alone. / No pack / no pride / no mate / helps me survive." Winters's tigress describes how she hunts to feed her cubs, washes them with her warm, wet tongue, carries them to safety to avoid a lurking leopard, and teaches them to swim, hide, and hunt, until at last they can go off to live on their own. The author presents a good deal of detail about the lifecycle, without ever giving specific information about the species of lion or geographic region where it is found. The title ends as it begins, as the tigress asserts: "I am the tigress. / I walk alone." Regan's huge black and gold tigress has strength and dignity, while the inquisitive cubs are cuddly and cute. Double-paged spreads allow for the sweep and majesty of the setting. But the illustrator is less successful at integrating the tiger into a realistic landscape. While the author describes the tigress hunting at the edge of the jungle at sunset "where peacocks roost," the illustrator presents a decorative peacock with feathers trailing to the ground. In any setting but a zoo, that bird would be dinner! The author does not provide sources, so young researchers will need to look elsewhere for school assignments, which certainly could be inspired by this beginning. This is an attractive nature read-aloud for the picture-book set. (Picture book. 6-8)Wood, Audrey JUBAL'S WISH Illus. by Don Wood Scholastic (32 pp.) Oct. 2000