The Places You Will Go

Picture Book of the Month: The Dancing Tiger

July 2007

The Dancing Tiger
By Malachy Doyle
Illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Francher
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Books, 32 pages

One moonlit night, a little girl sees, from her bedroom window, a tiger dancing in the woods. She goes to investigate and is asked by the big, graceful cat not to tell anyone his secret. In exchange, he will let her dance with him on moonlit nights. And so, the little girl and the tiger dance together, every moonlit night, through the seasons and the years, until she is an old lady. Her great-granddaughter then takes her place and the dancing continues.

The illustrations are by Steve Johnson and Lou Francher, who, with their paintbrushes, magically bathe each picture spread with the milky glow of moonlight. The painting of the girl and the tiger skipping through fields of bluebells is especially enchanting. Malachy Doyle tells the story in rhyme that is simple and gentle in tone, making The Dancing Tiger perfect for bedtime.

Consider Death

And life. That’s what this book makes you do. It also makes you see your neck in a whole new light....

Harry Potter and the Final Review

I'll never need to read and review another Harry Potter book for as long as I live. However, the last book in the series has given me a taste for more ...

Wrong or Right?

To work or not to work? That's a question that most mothers have asked themselves. Leslie Bennetts, in The Feminine Mistake (which alludes to and is inspired by Betty Friedan's seminal work The Feminine Mystique), says women should hold on to their jobs no matter what.

Reading Room

Angsty teens jostle for shelf space with a silent penguin and farm animals bent on taking to the skies.

Cut out the coupon (available only in the newspaper) to enjoy 25% discount on the featured books, at Kinokuniya Bookstores.

Reading Pictures

Boy Reading

Sir Joshua Reynolds 1723-1792

Dark Delights

I read and enjoyed Marcus Sedgewick's The Dark Horse a few years ago. It was a relief to come across a fantasy novel that wasn't part of a trilogy or even longer series (it's rare that a series is consistently good from the first book to the last. Trilogies have a better chance of maintaining a high standard throughout and I also am less likely to lose interest, which I usually do after book three or four).

My Swordhand is Singing is another of Sedgewick's standalones.  His other books are Floodland, Witch Hill and The Book of Dead Days.

Harry Potter and the Sick-Bag

I was supposed to pick up my review copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows early today at Kinokuniya Bookstores, KLCC, but I didn't get to the store till after 10am. (That's still pretty early though, for someone who is decidedly not a fan of the series.)

Just before I left my flat, I had a conversation with someone who'd read the final sentence of the book. It was pretty clear to me, therefore, what Harry's fate was.

At the store, I read the final chapter for myself. I read the last chapters of books often. Sometimes, it's to decided whether or not I should bother with the book at all. I hate sad endings and I often decide against reading a book that has one.

The last chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows made me want to puke my guts out. I don't want to read the rest of it, but as I have to write a review, I will have to.

In other HP news, Carrefour and Tesco hypermarkets are selling the book for just RM69.90. The retail price is RM109.90 and MPH and Times are so outraged that they have decided not to sell HP7, until further notice.

Reading Room

It's fiction, but it's real!

Cut out the coupon (available only in the newspaper) to enjoy 25% discount on the featured books, at Kinokuniya Bookstores.

Reading Pictures