BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSLily Reeves is so quiet that people tend to forget she is in the room, which she has always thought of as her own quiet superpower. When her mom moves Lily and her older sister, Sam, from California to live with their halmoni (Korean for grandmother) in the small, rainy town of Sunbeam, Washington, Lily is the only one in the car who spots a huge tiger standing in the middle of the road, and the only one who watches it vanish without a trace. That night, Halmoni tells her granddaughters their favorite childhood story, about two sisters chased by a tiger who escape into the sky to become the sun and the moon, then admits something she has never told them before: as a girl in Korea, she stole a set of dangerous stories from a family of tigers and sealed them away in jars, and now the tigers have come looking for what belongs to them. When Halmoni falls seriously ill soon after, and the tiger from the road starts appearing to Lily alone with an offer to heal her grandmother, Lily has to decide how far she is willing to go, and what she is willing to believe, to save the one person who has always seen her.
Free Battle of the Books questions for When You Trap a Tiger
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about When You Trap a Tiger. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a rope drop from one end of the sky and a staircase from the other?
✓ Answer
When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
In the folktale, the sky god rescues the two running sisters just as the beast leaps. Unya climbs the rope and little Eggi takes the stairs up to the sky kingdom.
- First half
In what book does a shopping list include pine nuts to burn under a full moon?
✓ Answer
When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
Halmoni and Lily head to the store with a list split into eating, extra protection, and misc. The protection section also calls for five-grain rice to scatter in the woods, and Sam raises an eyebrow but says nothing.
- First half
In what book does a boy bike over in head-to-toe camouflage, including a camo top hat?
✓ Answer
When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
Ricky shows up at Lily's house with about a thousand yards of rope around his waist and announces a superhero name for himself. He plops the hat onto Lily's head, and she keeps wearing it for luck.
- Second half
In what book does a family go to lunch at a restaurant whose sign reads "DRAGON THYME!"?
✓ Answer
When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
Mom takes everyone out to lunch to make the most of one of Halmoni's good days. The punny name and the tacky decor set up an outing that falls apart when Halmoni starts collecting plates from other diners.
- Second half
In what book does a teenager tie a rope to her bed frame to sneak out at night?
✓ Answer
When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
Sam uses the same rope Lily and Ricky used on their snare, then lowers herself out of the attic window. The sisters agree not to tell Mom and pinky promise they will both be okay, and the moment deliberately echoes the folktale rope dropped from the sky.
- Near the end
In what book does a girl climb through a window to break into a library at night?
✓ Answer
When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
Lily taps the pane and thumps the frame the way she once saw Mom do at Halmoni's house, and it opens. She is hunting for the beast, who mentioned that the library happens to be her favorite place.
