Sam calls Lily a QAG, or Quiet Asian Girl. She always does what her mom wants her to, and tries to make peace between her mom and her increasingly rebellious sister, Sam. As a QAD Lily is good at being invisible around other people, but the one person who always sees her is her grandmother, or Halmoni. When her family moves into her Halmoni's house, Lily basks in her grandmother's love and longs for the closeness she used to feel with Sam. But not everything is as Lily would hope. Her Halmoni is very ill and Lily keeps seeing a giant tiger that no one else can see. When the mystical tiger offers Lily a way to save her grandmother, Lily must discover the tiger-girl within herself.
This book is getting a lot of attention in the review journals. It reminds me a lot of the Newbery winner,
Onion John. At the beginning of the story it is easy for Lily to believe the folktales her Halmoni tells her, but as Lily starts to mature, she comes to realize that facing real life takes just as much courage as facing a giant mystical tiger. All the characters of the book are fully developed and sympathetic and the magical realism is enchanting.
I think this book is going to be on a lot of people's Newbery lists this fall. (2020, 297 p.)
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