Most of the Better Natural Things in the World

September 9, 2019
Mixed-media, digitally rendered landscapes in jewelbox colors tell the story of a silent, solitary journey. The tale opens on a bleak expanse of land, a wooden chair inexplicably placed in the foreground, a magenta cord draped around it: steppe, the handwritten label reads. A page turn reveals a white tiger wearing a purple kerchief, the chair tied to its back, tiptoeing gingerly across stones in a stream between two sheer rock walls: gorge, it’s labeled. Where is the tiger going—and what is the chair for? A white bird sometimes flies above the tiger, a friendly companion. In the spreads that follow, the tiger hikes, climbs, swims, and rows through magnificent stretches of wilderness labeled with geographical descriptors usually relegated to textbooks. The tiger journeys from atoll to alpine lake to the badlands, stopping to gaze at the northern lights before it arrives at its destination—a spot whose name sounds just like the feline’s own. Eggers (What Can a Citizen Do?) and newcomer Chang imagine a wild world emptied of humans, their buildings, their vehicles, and their trash—landscapes that make the tiger’s expedition gloriously free and startlingly beautiful. Ages 5–8.

October 1, 2019
An artistic envisioning of a list poem, of sorts, about place. With the exception of two double-page spreads reading "CLOUD FOREST" and "ALPINE LAKE," Eggers' text consists of single words on successive spreads, each one naming a geographic feature. Chang's lush illustrations place a white, bipedal tiger in each setting, a yellow chair lashed to its back as it travels left to right with the page turns. There's a dreamlike quality to the scenes as the intrepid tiger traverses, among other places, a gorge, a fjord, an atoll, an estuary, and a lagoon. At the center of the book, a dramatic double-gatefold spread presents (what else?) a "VISTA." But where is the tiger going? And what is the chair's purpose? Readers' interest will be sustained by these looming questions and by deft shifts of visual perspective offered in the illustrations. The reward is an instance of clever wordplay in a concluding spread that shows the tiger arriving at a "TAIGA" (which, along with the other geographic terms, is defined in a backmatter glossary). Amid this "swampy forest...found in the northern parts of the globe," a tiger family sits around a table set for a meal, with an empty place awaiting the tiger who's traveled so far. Repeated perusals will have readers proclaiming it's grrrrr-eat. (Picture book. 4-8)

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2019

PreS-Gr 3-A white tiger transports a yellow dining room chair on a fantastic voyage across varied landscapes. Each spread features a single topographic designation. The tiger swims, climbs, hikes, rows, and meanders his way across a tundra, estuary, atoll, cloud forest, and more. Occasionally, the tiger interacts with other animals such as bears in the foothills. A white bird and a brown mouse appear on many pages, which will intrigue sharp-eyed viewers. In fact, the illustrations, richly colored and consistently arresting, offer a visual feast. The four-page foldout, aptly dubbed "vista," allows readers to share the tiger's contemplation of a brilliant sunset. The journey's end seems almost an anticlimax after the fabulous trip. Eggers supplies cursory definitions of terms in a glossary at the end. Some brief entries provide examples of countries or continents where the geographical feature is found. Others mention representative plants or animals or describe physical features. VERDICT The wonderful illustrations will excite viewers about the natural world but libraries will want to have nonfiction titles on hand to satisfy childrens' curiosity about the geographic features depicted.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University Library, Mankato

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 1, 2019
Grades 1-3 *Starred Review* A white Bengal tiger traverses the world with nothing but a blue neckerchief and a chair tied to its back with a hot-pink rope. Lush full-bleed double-page spreads place the tiger in various natural environments, with only a single word that labels the location. The tiger is always in motion, climbing a valley, swinging in a cloud forest, swimming through an atoll, hiking dunes, and even cuddling bears in their foothills. Some locations may be more familiar?steppe, gorge, lagoon, vista, badlands, tundra, gulch, glacier?while others may be less so?fjord, archipelago, estuary, chaparral, isthmus. Chang's impressionistic mixed-media illustrations capture the awesome scope of each terrain, focusing on the larger components, peppered with the occasional critter (including a stealthy brown mouse that offers a seek-and-find game on most spreads). No clear narrative emerges until the final page, when the tiger enters the taiga?a swampy forest?and finds its partner and two cubs waiting at the dinner table, set with an open space for one more chair. A glossary provides thumbnails of each spread along with the definitions of the specific landscapes. While this may be a tough sell for young ones, the stunning artwork makes a case for environmentalism and will have readers strapping on a chair and heading out in search of our planet's diverse and wondrous beauty.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)