The Tiger's Egg: The Wednesday Tales No. 2 (Wednesday Tales (Quality)) [Paperback]

Jon Berkeley (Author), Brandon Dorman (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Series: Wednesday Tales (Quality)

When the Circus Bolsillo lands in Larde, orphan Miles Wednesday and his angel-friend Little join its wondrous and chaotic show. They soon fall in with Doctor Tau-Tau, a mysterious and bumbling fortune-teller who once knew Miles's parents and claims Miles's father is very much alive. Miles sets out in secret with Doctor Tau-Tau, but to his surprise the search for his father quickly turns into a hunt for a much coveted and powerful Tiger's Egg—a stone fabled to contain the soul of a tiger. No one knows its true whereabouts, and as Miles and Little begin to puzzle the bits together, they uncover its curious connection to Miles's parents. Could the Egg be the key to the secrets of Miles's own past?

Jon Berkeley's second novel in The Wednesday Tales continues the fantastical and often comical story of Miles Wednesday, as he sets forth on another strange adventure in pursuit of the truth.

--This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Fantasy readers will relish the imaginative characters. This novel is engaging from beginning to end.” (Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (Starred Review) )

“Berkeley’s writing is full of color, music, and a large supporting cast of vivid, eccentric characters. Fantasy afficionados looking for adventure will find plenty to love here.” (School Library Journal )

About the Author

Jon Berkeley was born in Dublin when TV was black-and-white and airplanes still had propellers. He was the worst football (um, soccer) player in the entire parish, and his favorite food was spaghetti bolognese. Some things never change.

Jon has worked as a freelance illustrator for a quarter of a century and more recently has taken to writing. He is the author and illustrator of chopsticks, a story about the friendship between a mouse and a dragon, and has illustrated several books by other authors.

He is the author of the Wednesday Tales series—The Palace of Laughter, The Tiger's Egg, and The Lightning Key, which have been praised for their vivid storytelling, humor, and one-of-a-kind characters. Publishers Weekly said of the palace of laughter: "Berkeley weaves painterly details into his depiction of this night-shaded world but also injects an ample measure of humor."

--This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; Reprint edition (December 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060755121
• ISBN-13: 978-0060755126
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,351,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jon Berkeley was born in Dublin at a time when there were no bootprints on the moon. He was educated by stern men with elbow patches, in a school where you were allowed go to the bathroom only if you asked in Irish.

At the age of two he picked up a pencil and began to draw. He drew dragons, giants, oddballs, castles, car races and lost aliens. He drew everything, in fact, except horses. Their back legs go funny in the middle, he says, and he still gives them a miss whenever he can.

Jon has worked for over twenty five years as a freelance illustrator, cartoonist and occasional columnist in Sydney, Hong Kong, London and Dublin, and now lives in a small town near Barcelona with his wife, Orna, and their five children, along with nine cats (at the last count) and two vintage dogs.

He illustrates for Time magazine, The Sunday Times, Newsweek and The Economist among many others, and writes when he's not illustrating. He wrote and illustrated CHOPSTICKS, the story of a friendship between a mouse and a dragon.

Jon is the author of THE WEDNESDAY TALES, a series of three books about a boy who lives in a barrel, a four-hundred-year-old girl with wings, a blind explorer and a talking tiger.

The first book of his new series, BELL HOOT FABLES, was released in Februrary 2010. It's called The Hidden Boy.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Fabulous, March 15, 2008

By 

MiloJRT "milojrt" (East coast, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tiger's Egg: The Wednesday Tales No. 2 (Hardcover)

I struggled to think of a good title for this review and that was all I could come up with - SIMPLY FABULOUS. Because that's truly what this book is. First, I am an elementary school teacher who LOVES reading children's and young adult literature. I am always on the lookout for a wonderful new book to share with my students, and one that I will enjoy myself, too. I read both books in the Wednesday Tales series by John Berkeley, and although I loved them both, The Tiger's Egg was my favorite (so far- I hear there is going to be a third!). Although you can read The Tiger's Egg without having read his first (The Palace of Laughter) I don't recommend it. I think you need to read them both to truly get the full effect! And as an added bonus, I also adored the illustrations at the start of each chapter, as well as the fabulous artwork done on the covers of the Wednesday Tales.

If you have read the Palace of Laughter, you will find The Tiger's Egg to be not quite as dark. There were some scary parts in The Palace of Laughter and there's not as much of that here. This story helps solve a lot of the mystery left from book one.

I admit that I am a true Harry Potter fan, and it is difficult, now that Harry is gone, to find a suitable replacement, or any book that will ever be as good, for that matter. Every book you pick up nowadays is trying to be a copy of Harry or something similar. Rest assured that this is not the case with John Berkeley. These stories are unique and do not follow the Harry premise, except maybe that the main character is an orphan, searching for clues about his parents.

What you WILL find here is a story set around a circus and all of its vibrant characters. There are fallen angels, talking tigers, clowns with speckled pasts, and mysteries that unravel before your eyes. That is all I will tell you about the story, as I am not one to give away a plot, plus you can read the general summary of the story here on Amazon. I am not a fan of the circus or of clowns, so don't feel you have to have some kind of liking for these things to enjoy the book. I was on the edge of my seat for The Tiger's Egg, waiting to find out what would happen next. So many unanswered questions from book one were answered, and new questions popped up that I hope to find the answers to in book 3. To me, a great story is one where you feel like you have befriended the characters. You care what happens to them and you can't wait to read more about them. Just know that at the end of The Tiger's Egg, you will feel as if your best friends have just gone off to summer camp and you miss them all terribly. I can't wait for the third book in the series to come out!