TIGER, TIGER
Lynne Reid Banks
Laurel Leaf/Random House
Historical Fiction
ISBN-10: 044042044X
ISBN-13: 9780440420446
160 pages

Aurelia is born to riches and power, where slaves rush to meet her every want and need, and where every citizen of Rome knows and admires her. She is the daughter of Caesar, the ruler of Rome. And Caesar adores his youngest child, so he plans an exotic and spectacular gift for her: a wild tiger cub!

Boots the tiger is born to the green wilds of the jungle, where he lies in the sun with his brother and learns to hunt and survive with lessons from his mother. But when their mother is murdered, he and his brother are taken captive and dragged miserably across the ocean in the dark, dank hold of a ship.

Upon arrival, Boots is defanged, neutered and forced to wear leather coverings over his razor-sharp claws. But despite this, he is the luckier of the two brothers, ending up with the pampered palace pet of Aurelia. His brother Brute, on the other hand, gets caged in the dungeons of the Colosseum and is abused, tormented and starved in preparation for the deadly entertainment of the arena with the armed gladiators and other exotic animals.

When sheltered Aurelia attends the Colosseum for the first time, the images of the cruel and horrid deaths of the gladiators, the outlawed Christians and the beautiful animals linger in her soul, haunting her dreams and days. It is then that she begins to realize that the father she's admired her entire life isn't as honorable as she'd believed, for he is the one responsible for the horrors at the Colosseum.

Then comes the day when a seemingly harmless prank lands Aurelia's beloved pet tiger and her secret love right into the dangerous depths of the Colosseum's arena to face Brute, the hungry and angry brother of Boots, in a fight to the death. Aurelia is forced to watch and finally face the injustices of her society.

As the author of THE INDIAN IN THE CUPBOARD, and over 40 other books, the talented Lynne Reid Banks is no stranger to writing awesome stories. Her style flows elegantly and almost musically throughout the pages. In TIGER, TIGER she travels back through time to the barbaric years of the Roman rule where fellow men were enslaved and forced in the bloody arena to fight to the death in the name of entertainment. Readers will love this attention-grabbing story, and will learn a bit of history along the way.

A slight warning to those more tenderhearted readers: the cruelties done to animals (and people) in this time period can be difficult to read.

   --- Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman, author

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