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| Mission Save Tigeropolis must succeed!! |
12th October 2016, Belle Media Ltd, 176 pages, Paperback, Review copies
Book summary
Tiger
cubs Bittu and Matti, together with old Uncle Raj and their mother
Tala, might have saved their beloved Tigeropolis, but they soon
discover there’s much more to running a successful wildlife park
than posing for the odd picture and uploading it to ‘Tigerbook’.
From
the reappearance of an old foe from Uncle Raj’s past, to coming up
with inventive
ways to draw in the crowds, the family of vegetarian
tigers have their hands full trying to make the reopening of
Tigeropolis the roaring success they want it to be.
Nayu's thoughts
A super cute tiger
community read which addresses issues all wildlife faces in the
modern world. For this review I read both books, the first was published in 2015 (I think it's on a reprint). While you can read the books out of order, I recommend you don't if you can help it.
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| Book 1's cover with Bittu!!! |
I confess it was initially Matt's illustrations which
drew me into the story-isn't Bittu adorable?!! There are cute
illustrations dotted throughout each story which made me smile as much
as the story did. I love how the tigers have a lot of human
characteristics including having a computer, and how they are still
animal like in the way humans view them. I enjoyed learning about
various Indian dishes, some which I'd heard of, I liked the subtle
puns which older readers will understand like names being subtly
twisted like David Battenburg for David Attenborough.
I like how both
history and the environment are key themes in the family centred
story, how relatable Bittu's family is despite being tigers he has
fun with his sister, and loves his uncles, understanding their
eccentricities are simply something to be lived with. There is a lot
of humour because of the communication barrier between the tigers and
the humans, whose reaction in the second book made me laugh because
Bittu's mother had the wrong impression of what the humans thought
about her misbehaving children. I loved how clueless the park's
guards were, especially when they had no knowledge of the lengths the
tigers were going to to save their park.
Once or twice I found the
pace a little clunky, which is the only reason this fun read doesn't
get full marks. I'm delighted there's a 3rd book coming to let me
continue enjoying this tiger family's life! Plus you can learn some more from R. D. Diksta in the guest blog post below.
Find out more on the dedicated website.
Tigeropolis – What
inspired the story? by R. D. Diksta
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| Nayu: a female tiger |
The initial idea for Tigeropolis came to me as I was sitting
in the back of a jeep heading back to camp after my first ever sighting of a
tiger in the wild. I was part way
through a tour of tiger parks in India that was organised by a group I
supported that seeks to encourage best practice in eco-tourism.
I’ve done many wildlife trips over the years – amongst other
things I’ve tracked Pandas in the wild in China, visited Mountain Gorillas in
Rwanda and photographed Polar Bears and Walrus in the Arctic. Each one was an
amazing experience, but I had never seen tigers in the wild. So, when the
chance came to join a ‘working’ trip round some of India’s best known tiger reserves,
I jumped at it.
We had visited a number of reserves with no success. Part of
the problem had been lack of time – after all it was a working visit, it wasn’t
supposed to be a tourist trip. We only really had time for the occasional
game-drive. By the time we visited
Bandhavgarh (a tiger reserve about 200 miles SE of Delhi) I was not expecting
much, although still hopeful.
It was right at the end of the day – we were with a very experienced tiger expert,
who knew the area like the back of her hand, so the chances seemed good, but
even then we had no luck. The park
closed in about 30 minutes and we had quite a bit of driving to do to get to
the gates. I was just beginning to reconcile myself to the fact that not seeing
a tiger was OK – after all these are
wild animals, and part of the joy of any wild life trip was that so much was
unpredictable – you just had to go with the flow. Suddenly we saw a couple of
other jeeps stopped up ahead. They had spotted a tiger in the bush and were
waiting for it to break cover. Our vehicle crept up to join them.
When the tiger finally emerged it was a really thrilling
experience – the excitement of everyone watching was clear – such a powerful
animal, and only feet away. But all the while the tigress barely seemed to notice
us. She just looked at us all for a few moments, turned, then slowly sauntered
passed us, turned again and then quietly slipped back into the bush. She was
only visible a few minutes – but what a
wonderful experience. All the while though she seemed in total control. This
was after all her territory.
That night I began thinking… what if the tigers really were
in control?
A couple of days later, on the plane back to the UK, I
started jotting down a few ideas.
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