Book Description
for Tigers, Not Daughters by Samantha Mabry
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Ana Torres died from a fall when the branch she was using to sneak out of her second-floor window broke. One year later, Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa believe their older sister has returned. Evidence is the mysterious hand pressing against the shower curtain; the angry writing appearing on the walls of their home. A novel that unfolds from the three girls' alternating points of view gradually reveals events the night Ana died, and how each of the sisters has coped with grief. The girls' father, feckless even before Ana died, is grieving, too, and mired in debt. Jessica, now oldest, holds the family together financially while dating Ana's abusive boyfriend. Iridian hasn't left the house since being humiliated by a classmate, instead immersing herself in old books of Ana's and the story she's writing. Youngest Rosa, 12, in some ways the most competent and clear-thinking of the sisters, pays close attention to the natural world and is convinced the recent escape of a hyena from the zoo is connected to Ana. The perspectives of the teenage boys who gather at the house next door round out this tale. Fascinated by Ana, the boys were witness to some of what happened the night of her death, and were the first to see her ghost. This singular, mesmerizing work is a story of revenge, justice, and family in which three Latinx sisters facing grief and other challenges affirm their bond. (Age 13 and older)
CCBC Choices 2021. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2021. Used with permission.