Tiger loves to eat cake and only cake until he has a toothache. The dentist tells the boy his tiger must not eat any more cake. What will the tiger eat if he is banned from eating cakes? She suggests he should eat the same food as other tigers!
Just look at that cover - we can only see part of the huge tiger and a couple of discarded cupcakes. If you stretch out the cover you will see the rest of the tiger and his face as the boy is pulling him by his tail dragging him to the dentist.
Back cover
The illustrations in this book are fantastic - this tiger has an even better face than the famous tiger in The Tiger who Came to Tea.
The Tiger who came to Tea by Judith Kerr
Gecko Press blurb: My tiger loved cake, and I went with him to the cake shop. Then he got a bad tooth, so I went with him to the dentist. My tiger didn’t like sitting in the waiting room, climbing onto the dentist chair, being told by the dentist what to eat. Especially when she said no more cake! What’s a tiger supposed to eat? A bossy adult is made to look silly and a charming tiger wins the reader’s heart in this subversively funny story about a love of cake and the pull of natural tiger instincts.
The timing of reading this book is PERFECT because I just had a terrible experience with a dentist - and then I tried to book an appointment with a kinder lady in the same practice only to be told she couldn't see me for at least a week and that very same day I found this Joy Cowley book - I feel like asking the tiger from this story to help me! I know we want children to feel confident about visiting the dentist but reading this book where (spoiler alert) the way the dentist is eaten by the tiger felt so good just after my horror experience.
A trip to the dentist is inevitable after one too many sweets causes a toothache. The encounter is unnerving for both parties, and the tiger is advised to avoid cakes for good, leading to an unexpectedly dark yet hilarious ending as the big cat opts for a diet more suited to his needs. New Zealand author Cowley has crafted a vivid story grounded in simplicity, while Barrow adeptly conveys the titular beast’s intimidatingly vast size and imminent danger. The feline playfully contorts his body to fit the page as those around him look on in consternation, and when the child peers into the big cat’s gaping maw, the perspective switches to inside the tiger’s mouth, his jagged teeth filling the page. But Barrow also gives the tiger an expressive, almost childlike face. His human friend’s matter-of-fact, almost deadpan narration will lull readers into a sense of calm before ending on a surprising yet satisfying last note. A deeply amusing, wonderfully subversive look at defying expectations and watching what you eat. Kirkus Star review
Companion books:
Joy Cowley is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated authors. In 1992, she was awarded an OBE for services to children’s literature; and the following year she was granted an honorary doctorate from Massey University, as well as being awarded the Margaret Mahy Medal and a DCNZM (A Damehood in the old honour system). In 2002, the Joy Cowley Award was established in her honour. Most recently, Joy received the New Zealand Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction for 2010. Joy Cowley was born in 1936 (89 years old). I wondered if My Tiger was perhaps a book she wrote in the past and that it perhaps has been published with different illustrations and reading a Facebook post from the publisher I have found the answer (which oddly was not included on the imprint page). My Tiger was first published in 1980 with illustrations by Robyn Belton; then again in an anthology by Gavin Bishop titled Just One More.
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