The Dancing Tiger

Malachy Doyle (author)

Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher (illustrations)

Koala Books, Australia: 2005

ISBN: 0864615167

Genres: fantasy, picture books, poetry

Issues: creativity, imagination

‘There's a quiet, gentle tiger/ In the woods below the hill,/ And he dances on his tiptoes,/ When the world is dreaming still.'

Thus begins this delightful story of a child who creeps from her bedroom one night and discovers a tiger dancing in the moonlight in the forest near her house. The tiger invites her dance with him, if she promises not to tell others about him, and so they dance for many years, enjoy the change of seasons and the secret they share. But the girl becomes a woman who eventually is too old to dance, although the tiger is ageless. Not wanting him to become lonely, the woman introduces her grand-daughter to her secret friend, and watches as they continue the dance she and the tiger began so long ago.

Children will love the rhythm and rhyme of the text, four lines to each double page, as it echoes the dancing of the tiger and the girl. The oil on paper illustrations are full of the mysterious, rich, shadowy colours of a moonlit night, and the faces of the girl and the tiger are full of the joy they take in their dancing. This story has a lovely, dream-like feel to it that will feed the imaginations of young listeners.