Tiger (The Five Ancestors, Book 1) [Hardcover]

Jeff Stone (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: The Five Ancestors, Book 1

“Tiger clips along at a lightning pace!”—Eoin Colfer

Twelve-year-old Fu and his temple brothers Malao, Seh, Hok, and Long don’t know who their parents were. Raised from infancy by their grandmaster, they think of their temple as their home and their fellow warrior monks as their family. Then one terrible night, the temple is destroyed by an army led by a former monk named Ying, whose heart is bent on revenge. Fu and his brothers are the only survivors. Charged by their grandmaster to uncover the secrets of their past, the five flee into the countryside and go their separate ways. Somehow, Grandmaster has promised, their pasts are connected to Ying’s. Understanding that the past is the key to shaping the future, the first book in the series follows Fu as he struggles to find out more and prove himself in the process. Fu’s name literally means “tiger,” for he is the youngest-ever master of the fierce fighting style modeled after that animal.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9 - Essentially a graphic novel without the graphics, this book (the first of five) should have broad appeal to readers who love computer games and Japanese anime. As the story begins, five orphans, being raised as foster brothers and Buddhist monks in 17th-century China, are hiding in a large water jar as imperial forces, led by their renegade older brother, Ying, attack and slaughter their temple's residents. Grandmaster has given the boys animal names and has trained each of them in a martial-arts style related to his titular animal's strengths. He intends the five to escape, even if everyone else dies. Fu - the "tiger" - is this book's main character; in addition to remaining free, he is determined to reclaim the valuable ancient training scrolls that Ying has taken from the temple. Fu finds friends in unexpected places and learns to control the impulses he has fought against all of his life. Teens are likely to warm to the implicit theme that each person has a particular destiny, an inborn sense of identity that must be brought to light. While quite a page-turner, employing slapstick humor from time to time in true manga style, Tiger is nonetheless an adventure story and not a more serious work of finding one's self and one's place in the world. Cheryl Aylward Whitesel's Blue Fingers (Clarion, 2004) is a fine story that also examines those topics. - Coop Renner, Hillside Elementary, El Paso, TX
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 6-9. This first installment of The Ancestors series features Fu, or Tiger, one of five orphan monks, each named for an animal he most resembles. As the book begins, the boys are hidden in a water barrel during a raid on their temple. The emperor's army, under the command of their former brother, Ying, the Eagle, is out to destroy the Cangzhen Monastery, kill the grandmaster, and steal the sacred scrolls. Impetuous Fu rescues the scrolls, but his own rash act leads to imprisonment in a remote village. Although set in 1650 China, this is a kung fu novel, not historical fiction, and despite the grandmaster's peace-seeking Buddhist philosophy, Tiger is not for the squeamish, as Ying is a terrifying villain and "bloodstained flesh dangles" during violent battles. Characters are virtuous or evil, but the slam-bang, pedal-to-the-metal adventure stands a good chance of luring kids away from video games; they will definitely line up for the forthcoming sequel. Linda Perkins
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (March 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375830715
• ISBN-13: 978-0375830716
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #902,343 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeff Stone lives in the Midwest with his wife and two children and practices the martial arts daily. Though Mr. Stone isn't Chinese, his wife is. She's from Hong Kong and speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, and English fluently. They have two children, a daughter age 5 and a son age 3. Both children speak Cantonese and English. Mr. Stone thinks his English skills are pretty good, but his Cantonese still needs a lot of work.
Like the Five Ancestors, Mr. Stone was adopted as an infant. He began searching for his birth mother when he was eighteen and found her fifteen years later.
Mr. Stone has worked as a photographer, an editor, a maintenance man, a technical writer, a ballroom dance instructor, a concert promoter, and a marketing director for companies that design schools, libraries, and skateboard parks.
When he isn't busy hiking, fishing, reading, playing sports, practicing martial arts, or traveling to Hong Kong with his wife and two children, Mr. Stone can usually be spotted writing at home.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Debut, March 25, 2005

By 

Ara Burklund (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tiger (The Five Ancestors, Book 1) (Hardcover)

I bought TIGER for my eight-year-old son, and he absolutely loved it. So far, his reading tastes have included the Bionicle books, Lemony Snicket's novels, Magic Tree House adventures, and the old Boxcar Children series, but in the Five Ancestors, he's found a new favorite. This was the first book my son read from cover to cover, on his own, in the space of eight hours. He was so absorbed in reading TIGER that he barely wanted to stop for food or bathroom breaks. We're so excited to have discovered Jeff Stone!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Action Packed Kung Fu Adventure, March 7, 2006

By 

Lane Young "Teacher and Librarian" (Highland Park, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tiger (The Five Ancestors, Book 1) (Hardcover)

Cangzhen Temple is one of the most renowned temples in China and home to five unique teens. Each is the master of a particular style of Kung Fu and their skills are put to the test when their Temple is destroyed by Ying, a former student of the temple. This is the first of a planned five book series and follows Fu, master of the tiger style of Kung Fu, as he attempts to find a way to defeat Ying and get the 5 scrolls of ancient Kung Fu wisdom that Ying now has. Fu is a ferocious fighter and has an equally volcanic temper. The action starts quickly, grabbing the read from page one, and runs throughout this book. Readers will be hard-pressed not to want to immediately pick-up Monkey the second book in the series.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Whew! Exciting!, May 5, 2005

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tiger (The Five Ancestors, Book 1) (Hardcover)

Tiger, Jeff Stone's children's adventure story, is the first of a series about five young warrior monks in 17th century China.

The cover has a powerful illustration and raised lettering of the Chinese characters for tiger. It's a "wow" book from the cover to the too-quick ending.

Author Stone paints some amazingly clear pictures of these young monks and their kung fu fighting. I felt like I was in the midst of every fight, and in every perilous predicament.

Fu, also known as Tiger, is 12 years old, like his four monk brothers. They survive an attack on their secret temple by an evil 16-year-old monk. When Tiger and the other young monks realize that everyone has been massacred, they know they must hunt down and regain possession of the temple's scrolls. Why? The scrolls contained special kung fu fighting techniques only known to those monks.

Each monk takes on the persona of his corresponding animal, and future books in the series will be called Crane, Monkey, Dragon and Snake. Young readers will enjoy the energetic fight scenes, the young monk's cunning, and most of all, their commitment to each other and their grandmaster.

Children who are involved in the martial arts will immediately become fans and will love every moment in this page-turning book. I can't wait for the next one due in September 2005.

Warning from this reviewer: It's been eons since I've read to a child, or been involved in their video games, so I don't know what level of violence is acceptable. I was a bit taken aback by the graphic violence in the book. It is geared to 8-to-12-year olds but I think it should be 10-12.