DO YOU SEE THE TIGER?

A subway ride turns into a memorable adventure when a girl encounters a tiger.

Penny and her father leave the rainy London streets to board an underground train. Her brown hair is pulled into a bun, and she sports a yellow-and-black-striped backpack, hinting at the events to come. Penny notices that one of the riders has orange and black fur under his fedora and trench coat—a tiger?! Her father gently dismisses her (“That’s not a tiger, little love. That’s just a person’s stripy glove!”), but a brown-skinned toddler clutching a stuffed blue bunny is also staring at the beast. As the toddler and his parent exit the train, the bunny falls to the floor. In an extended pas de deux, Penny and the tiger (now sans outerwear) rescue Bun-Bun, propelling it through the doors into the grateful child’s hands. Rhyming text (which includes a nod to William Blake’s “Tyger, Tyger”) drives the plot forward and adds to the read-aloud pleasure: “At last, with leaping grace and flair, / he sent Bun-Bun spinning through the air.” Melling has created a slow-motion effect for his warm, mixed-media images by using the train windows as sequential panels through which to view the ballet. Those who observe the oblivious adults and waving, re-clothed tiger among the departing passengers will delight in having been in on the secret. Penny and her father have light brown skin; the human passengers are diverse.

Sure to have youngsters going wild imagining similar escapades.