The Tiger Rising

DiCamillo was born in Pennsylvania, but due to her childhood chronic pneumonia, she moved to Florida with her mother and older brother when she was four years old. Her father, an orthodontist, didn’t follow the family. She studied English at the University of Florida, graduated in 1987, and moved to Minneapolis in 1994. While working at a book warehouse in Minneapolis, DiCamillo became interested in children’s fiction and published Because of Winn-Dixie, her first book, in 2000. Since then, DiCamillo has written and published prolifically, publishing other children’s novels, chapter books for beginning readers, and picture books, as well as contributing short stories for various collections. Two of her novels, The Tale of Desperaux and Flora and Ulysses, were honored with Newbery Medals, while Winn-Dixie was a Newbery Honor Book. She still lives in Minneapolis.

Published in 2001, The Tiger Rising was written and published during a period of time when it was circulating widely that there were more captive tigers in a handful of Southern states (namely Florida and Texas) than there were in the wild. Until the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, there were no limits on importing wild animals to the United States, including by individual private citizens (rather than zoos or sanctuaries). Throughout the 2000s, the federal government and many states passed laws requiring stricter licensure for big cat owners and, for instance, requiring permits to move big cats of all species across state lines. In aggregate, these laws led to a decrease in the number of captive big cats in the United States, though the exact number of big cats living in captivity isn’t known. In addition, the novel draws inspiration from two primary sources, William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” and the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. The Sistine Chapel’s ceiling consists of religious frescoes painted by the Renaissance sculptor and painter Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512. Visionary poet William Blake’s poem “The Tyger,” published in 1794 in Songs of Innocence and Experience, is the sister poem to “The Lamb.” Both consider the nature of God, including how and why an all-powerful being created evil and danger (the tiger) in addition to kind and gentle creatures (like the lamb).

In The Tiger Rising, as well as in DiCamillo’s debut novel Because of Winn-Dixie, DiCamillo explores how children handle the loss of a parent. Other novels that feature deceased or absent parents include Roald Dahl’s novels The BFG and James and the Giant Peach, the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, Sharon Creech’s Newbery Award winner Walk Two Moons, and Rodman Philbrick’s Freak the Mighty. The Tiger Rising draws heavily on “The Tyger,” a poem by William Blake first published in 1794 in Songs of Innocence and Experience. Other novels for young readers that consider ethical questions about animals include Katherine Applegate’s verse novel The One and Only Ivan, as well as Anna Sewell’s 1877 classic Black Beauty.