From: Clark Underbakke <clarku>
Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2002 22:55:51 -0600

I agree with Steven and Sandy...Tiger Rising being a little bit over the top...emotionally speaking. My class of second graders echoed the same sentiment as well. Last year, we all fell in love with Because of Winn-Dixie and its cast of interesting characters. I picked up Tiger Rising while at IRA and read it aloud upon my return...having read it on the plane on the way home. I knew I could not return to the world of second grade...sharing new books and "freebie" treasures with everyone...without including Tiger. The whole tiger in the cage thing was, like Steven said, o.k. as a metaphor. The children understood the metaphor but had difficulty
"buying" it as part of the story. Living in Alabama, the entire class had vast collective prior knowledge about many parts of Florida. (I think it was set in Florida...someone correct me if I am wrong...my book is at school...) Questions arose...Some parts of Florida get cold in the winter...could a tiger survive? Is there any part of Florida remote enough to house such a large secret? (They were thinking this considering the very OVER-populated areas of Florida such as Disney/Epcot/Universal Studios/beaches, etc.) Maybe the exact location was alluded to, but not enough to leave an impression on us.

The class did find it interesting that DiCamillo chose a male lead character and such a vastly different animal to spotlight in the book. I would have to say our favorite character was the full-of-wisdom housekeeper at the hotel. Like Sandy, we look forward to more of DiCamillo's books...until then, Winn-Dixie remains our favorite!

Regards, Clark Underbakke Birmingham, AL
Received on Wed 09 Jan 2002 10:55:51 PM CST