#225 of 1001 · March 13, 2021

There’s insight, humor, and irrepressible joy in @peterbrownstudio’s Mr. Tiger Goes Wild. Our story opens in a world of animals who walk about on their hind legs wearing human clothing, their animal instincts long since cast off. Prim, demure, and buttoned-down, they mind their manners and abhor uncouth behavior. Mr. Tiger cannot stand this stifling mode of existence, and he begins reverting to his animalistic ways: he walks on all fours, roars for all to hear, and eventually removes his clothing. His neighbors, scandalized, send him off into the jungle, where he has plenty of room to move and breathe free. But after a while, missing life with his friends in the city, he sets out to rejoin his community and find a happy medium. Brown’s inspired color palette reinforces the narrative’s central themes by portraying Mr. Tiger as a lone burst of bright orange among the other anthropomorphic mammals, who nearly fade into the background of grays and sepias. Only when Mr. Tiger reaches the lush jungle do we see notes of vibrant green, cyan, and pink: the visual world of the book itself has gone wild. In the text, Brown allows his short, punchy sentences to land with maximum impact, and they nimbly convey the emotional beats of the plot. His animal characters may have something to teach us humans; after all, behind our manners, beneath our veneer of propriety, we all have a little spark of wildness just waiting to burst free. #tiger #wild #animal #animals #city #jungle #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks