Houck, C. (2011). Tiger’s
Curse. Great Britain: Hodder & Stoughton.
ISBN-13: 978-1402784033
Genre: Fantasy,
Animals, Magic, Romance
Reading level/
interest age: 15+
Plot summary:
Three hundred years ago two brothers were cursed to change
into tigers and only allowed thirty minutes a day to transform back as humans.
Kelsey happens to meet one of the bothers, Ren, during her job at a traveling
circus. She takes an interest in him as a tiger but the circus receives an
offer from a man named Mr. Kadam to sell Ren.
Kelsey is distraught until Mr. Kadam asks if she would like to escort
Ren back to India to be released the in the wild. Kelsey agrees and they arrive
in Mumbai. Mr. Kadam tells Kelsey to get something to eat but when she leaves
the restaurant, Mr. Kadam has vanished and she sees Ren was left in a crate to
the side of the road. Kelsey decides to release Ren and tries unsuccessfully to
resist the urge to follow him into the jungle. Ren leads her to a hut where he
transforms into a human. He quickly explains his curse to her before changing
back. The owner of the hut is a medicine man who tells Kelsey she was meant to
help Ren break the curse and sends them off to a temple to seek answers.
Reader’s annotation:
A simple kiss isn’t going to be enough to break the curse on
this prince. What has Kelsey gotten herself into?
Information about the
author:
“Colleen Houck was born in Tuscan, AZ on October 3, 1969.
She went to Henry Elementary, Gridley Middle, and Sahauro High School before
attending Rick’s College (later renamed Brigham Young University – Idaho) in
Rexburg, Idaho, where she attained her Elementary Education associate’s degree.
She met her husband, Bradley Houck, by going on a mission for her church and
serving deaf people using ASL – American Sign Language. They met in the
Missionary Training Center. A few years of playing cat and mouse later, they
were married.
“She’d been inspired by Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (people,
don’t groan or snicker – you know you liked the story too) and, after getting
sick of waiting year after year for other books to come out, she grabbed a pen,
paper, and started writing. Voila, the tiger princes were born!” (EDUBlogs.com,
2014).
Curriculum ties: N/A
Booktalking ideas:
1.
Would you have followed a tiger into the jungle?
2.
What would you have done after Ren told you
about his curse?
Critical evaluation:
Tiger’s Curse is a
good transition book from juvenile fiction to young adult. There is a heavy
focus on Ren as a tiger and his relationship with Kelsey is relatively tame. With
such a large amount dedicated to Ren as a tiger, this could appeal to readers
who are interested in animals. Sadly, Tiger’s
Curse is not all that well written and at times, the reader can have a hard
time believing the story enough to get into it. Kelsey’s parents letting her
travel to India with a stranger is hard to accept as well as her ability to trek
long distances through the jungles of India. Despite having some difficulty
getting into the book, readers can rest assured that their time is well spent
delving into this series. The author develops as a writer in later books and
the quests become more complex and interesting. Tiger’s Curse is a light-hearted novel great for young readers.
Challenge issues: N/A
Why included:
The Tiger’s Curse
series was based off of Eclipse by
Stephenie Meyer and both series have a large focus on animals. I think that
this book is a great transition from juvenile literature to the young adult
genre.
Reference:
EDUBlogs.com. (2014). Meet
the Author. Retrieved August 22, 2014 from
http://tigerscursebookreport.edublogs.org/meet-the-author/
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