KS: Upper KS2
Year Group: Year 6
Literary Theme: Evolution & Inheritance
Author(s): Kate DiCamillo
This is a 16-session Literary Leaf for Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo and the poem The Tyger by William Blake which children use to compare the language used around tigers. Children explore language - literal and figurative - within the text and explore how to infer deeply around a character's intentions. They plot the main character's journey through exploring his emotions and weigh up decisions he is faced with along the way. The series of lessons ends with children studying the 'shape' of the story and considering the literary themes covered.
We chose this book for a Literary Leaf as it is a wonderful narrative which provides opportunities to explore the themes of friendship and trust. Walking through the misty Florida woods one morning, twelve-year-old Rob Horton is stunned to encounter a tiger - a real-life, very large tiger - pacing back and forth in a cage. What’s more, on the same extraordinary day, he meets Sistine Bailey, a girl who shows her feelings as readily as Rob hides his. As they learn to trust each other, and ultimately, to be friends, Rob and Sistine prove that some things - like memories, and heartaches, and tigers - can’t be locked up forever.
Tigers, endangered animals, capitivity, activism, conservationism
