When You Trap a Tiger

When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller tells the story of Lily and her family who move into her Halmoni's house after hearing that she has started becoming sick. After seeing a mysterious tiger outside her window on the drive to Halmoni's house, she inevitably learns about the family secrets Halmonis kept quietly for years. As Halmoni continues to become more ill, Lily takes it upon herself and makes a deal with the mysterious tiger to try to save her. In result of Lily's choices, she learns the importance of family, resilience, and cultural identity.

Common Core State Standard:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.3 Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.

During reading:

• Cover essential vocabulary terms as they arise in the story:

  • Halmoni: Korean word for grandmother

  • Humanity: the human race

  • Instictive: a natural feeling without conscious thought

  • Kimchi: a Korean dish of spicy pickled cabbage

  • Scritch: scratching and screeching sound

  • Prognosis: the likely course of a disease

  • Hallucinations: experiences of seeing or hearing things that are not present

• Example discussion questions to drive comprehension:

  • How is the relationship between Lily's mother and Halmoni presented in the beginning of the story?

    • Does the relationship between them change over the course of the story? Why or Why not? What experiences could lead to this change?

  • What are the significance of the tiger stories that Halmoni tells to Lily? Do these stories relate to the experiences that the characters feel later on? 

    • Do they serve as a prediction of what's to come or merely a warning for Lily to not trust mythical tigers?

  • What is the significance of the rice cakes and Lily wanting to learn how to make them from Halmoni? Does Lily's desperation to learn how to make rice cakes help to illuminate a bigger struggle that Lily is facing?

  • How do the relationships in this multigenerational household change throughout the story? 

    • What examples of conflict occur between characters and how does this improve or impair their relationship?

    • How are the different generations able to learn from one another through their experiences in the story? 

  • What are the significance of the bottled stories in relation to Lily's family heritage? 

  • What is the significance of the trapped tiger in the story? How does this character relate to the knowledge of tigers in Korean culture shared prior to reading the book?

After reading: 

• Students will be given the task of writing a letter from one character (of their choosing) to another character (of their choosing).

  • Students must use evidence from the text to draw on what their character will write about to the other character in the story

  • Students must draw upon the characters' relationship to one another and the experiences they went through together