The illustrations in this book are absolutely gorgeous. They invite you into the story so that you almost forget that a tame, talking tiger wouldn’t really wander out of the woods at a family campground. At his family’s traditional end-of-summer camping trip, the young narrator is feeling down about growing up. After a week of sleeping with the tiger, boating and fishing and stargazing with the tiger, he is sad when it leaves camp on their last day to return to its cave, just as his family must return to their home. When he gets home, he immediately draws his tiger friend to show to his new teacher. It’s a story that left me a bit puzzled at the end, wondering, “huh…I wonder what the point of all that was supposed to be…” and yet I didn’t really care that I was a bit confused. It managed to evoke such sentiment and emotion that I really enjoyed it, even if I didn’t quite “get it.”