Last year, when my daughter was in kindergarten I was trying to explain to her why we need to use good manners and be polite, at the end of the conversation she looked me in the eye and with a very disgruntled face said, "You always want me to be so proper and not have any fun!" She may have stomped her foot as well.
As I recently read this book to her and my son, I realized that she can definitely relate to Mr. Tiger.
When we first meet Mr. Tiger he lives in a proper world, with proper clothes and proper greetings.
All of the properness is getting to him so he decides to do something about it and he slowly becomes more and more wild, while his friends look on in disbelief.
My kids love it when Mr. Tiger starts roaring, then tosses aside all of his clothes, and finally runs away to the wilderness.
The genius of this book is the humor and skill of artistry used in the illustrations.
Peter Brown takes us on this beautifully illustrated journey of Mr. Tiger discovering his wildness and then realizing that there is a necessary balance to life.
His use of a muted color scheme with sparing color details at the beginning sets the tone for Mr. Tiger's proper life. As he adds more color into the illustrations you can feel the excitement of Mr. Tiger becoming more wild, and throwing off the weight of convention.
The end result of Mr. Tiger going wild is a nice compromise when he realizes that being in the wilderness by himself is lonely.
As a parent, I love that the idea of compromise is expressed in a fun way since compromising is one of those life skills that can be hard to master and even harder to teach to a young child.
More fun reads by Peter Brown:
Children Make Terrible Pets
The Curious Garden
How to create your own Mr. Tiger:
Mr. Tiger Goes Wild Craft
p.s. if you are interested in owning a copy of Mr. Tiger Goes Wild- check out our instagram giveaway.
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