When You Trap a Tiger

Use these links to supplement and complement students’ reading of the work and to increase their overall enjoyment of literature. Challenge them to discern parallel themes, engage through visual and aural stimuli, and delve deeper into the thematic possibilities presented by the title.

Recommended Texts for Pairing

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

• a 2010 Newbery Honor children’s book that includes the motif of traditional folktales; connects to the theme of The Perception and Importance of Stories
• Main character Minli seeks to change her family’s fortune on a quest to the Old Man of the Moon.
• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon on SuperSummary

Finding Junie Kim by Ellen Oh

• a middle grade novel featuring a female protagonist, Junie Kim, who learns from her grandparents’ stories of life during the Korean War
• connects to the themes of The Perception and Importance of Stories and The Complexity of Three-Dimensional Personalities

Hour of the Bees by Lindsay Eagar

• a middle grade novel featuring 12-year-old Carol, whose growing fascination with her grandfather’s stories as he struggles with dementia leads to realizations about family
• connects to the themes of The Perception and Importance of Stories and The Complexity of Three-Dimensional Personalities
• Hour of the Bees on SuperSummary

“Year of the Tiger: Why Tigers Have a Special Place in Koreans’ Hearts” by Song Seung-hyun

• a nonfiction newspaper article in The Korea Herald featuring discussion of When You Trap a Tiger

“The Tiger and the Persimmon”

• a brief full-text version of the classic Korean folktale
• Students can use this link for the Paired Text Extension in the Activity.
• connects to the novel’s theme of Defying Established Roles

Other Student Resources

“Newbery Award Winner Tae Keller on Trapping Tigers, Biracial Identity, and Korean Women”

• a 3-minute podcast featuring the author
• The author’s discussion connects to the themes of Defying Established Roles and The Perception and Importance of Stories.

“Tiger Family”

• visual art; image of an ancient hanging scroll housed at The Cleveland Museum of Art
• Note the symbolic meaning of individual images in the description; what story might be told by the tigers’ expressions and postures?
• connects to the theme of The Perception and Importance of Stories

Teacher Resources

“Storytelling and Cultural Traditions”

• a brief National Geographic overview of the importance of oral storytelling in a variety of cultures
• You can scale the reading level by choosing 3rd–12th grade.
• connects to the theme of The Perception and Importance of Stories

“National Folk Museum of Korea Welcomes the Year of the Tiger”

• a brief article that will help to explain to students Korea’s historic, literary, and mythological connections to tigers

“Perceptions and Representations of the Tiger in East Asian Art” by Choi Seonju

• a review that includes descriptions and analyses of Korean tiger art