Music for Tigers

Music for Tigers is a beautifully written middle grade novel that will warm the hearts of young readers. Lou grows by leaps and bounds when she is sent to spend the summer in Tasmania instead of practicing her violin. Readers will find themselves drawn into this beautiful story as Lou connects with her family roots and the Australian back country.

There are books that grip you from page one and transport you right into the story. The author takes you on a journey and drops you right in the middle of their story, Michelle Kadarusman has this particular magic in her writing. Never have I read one of her beautiful books and not been completely captivated, almost always reading them in one sitting.

Music for Tigers is her incredible new story, set in the Tasmanian rainforest, about family, legacy, friendship, and environmentalism. Michelle Kadarusman explores so many different themes with the time and attention they need to grow. In the story we meet Louisa who is sent to spend some time at her Uncle Ruff’s bush camp in Tasmania, much to her chagrin. She should be spending the summer practicing her violin for her big audition. While at the camp she meets her great-grandmother, through her journals, a new friend in Colin, and a once thought extinct Tasmanian tiger named Ellie.

Music is found in many different places. There is the music created by musicians to entertain us but there is also the music of the everyday. The music in the birds singing in the trees, the frogs croaking in the ponds, the chattering of children as they play. While in the rainforest Louisa makes many discoveries. She discovers the music in sitting and listening to the wildlife around her. She discovers she is not quite so different from her family after all and she discovers how she can be a good friend. There are times when we just don;t recognize how we fit into our family dynamic. We feel so different from those around us that it’s hard to know how we belong. In Louisa’s case her passion for music is so different from the passion for biology her mom, dad, and older sister share. While staying in her ancestral home she discovers she wasn’t the only person in her family with a passion for music, her great-grandmother Eleanor was not only an environmentalist and an ecological protectionist, she was also an accomplished pianist. When she meets Colin, the son of her Uncle Ruff’s neighbour and an accomplished rainforest tour guide, she meets a neurodiverse friend who she helps to navigate the challenging world of body language and social interaction. Colin helps Louisa recognize and name what has been keeping her from earning a place in the youth orchestra, performance anxiety. His blunt recognition of her challenge helps her find comfort and also allows her the confidence to confide in her parents and get the help and resources she needs to succeed. Together they help to save a long thought extinct species.

Michelle Kadarusman always writes from the heart. She writes about places she has lived that have a piece of her spirit. She lovingly addresses topics that at one time were thought taboo in children’s literature. It is incredible to have authors forthrightly tackling topics such as mental health, neurodiversity, and environmentalism. These are topics that are so relevant to youth today and will strike a chord with many young readers. It’s a book that would make an incredible read aloud in a classroom or as a bedtime read and it’s also a story that will inspire action well after you are finished with the story. There are so many elements you could dive down into further to really get to the heart of the characters. Consider enjoying Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons before, during, and after reading. You will gain a new perspective for the genius behind the work.

In a single word: brilliant.

From start to finish, Music for Tigers is absolutely brilliant.

The power of Kadarusman's story telling of Louisa discovering truths of her family, world, and self, is intricately interwoven with discussions of deforestation, species extinction, effects of mining, neurodiversity and the difficulties that arise from being neurally diverse, childhood anxiety, normalizing cognitve behavioral therapy, the strength of family, friends, and nature.

Music for Tigers is a book for all ages, we are blessed to have Michelle Kadarusman's voice speaking to our next generation of readers. By far one of my favorite reads of the year.

Buy this as a gift for every young or young at heart person you know, and pick up a copy for yourself while you're at it.