Award-winning poet and author Robin Gow’s latest middle grade novel in verse is an original, compelling, and insightful look at change, friendship, anger, and how we process and share our feelings.
Jasper, a transgender, autistic eighth-grader, had always been close with his older brother, his only friend. Casper even helped him choose a new name when Jasper came out as trans, and provided company while their parents worked the night shift cleaning office buildings. But Casper grew distant as he prepared for college, and didn’t take Jasper on the fossil dig he said he would. Now, with Casper away at college and ignoring Jasper’s texts, Jasper feels lonely and angry. He decides to dig for fossils on his own, in his backyard.
As he does so, however, he begins to hear a voice: that of a saber-toothed tiger buried deep in the earth. The tiger urges Jasper to dig, promising friendship and understanding. Jasper works heroically to unearth the tiger, enlisting the help of two classmates: Parker, a “kind of” friend, who is also autistic, and Yarrow, a new student, who is nonbinary. But the tiger, once unearthed, is not as it seemed, and endangers not only the three young people, but also the world around them.
Told through Jasper’s first-person perspective, the story balances a nuanced exploration of his feelings with the dramatic tension of the tiger’s growing threat. Is the tiger a metaphor for Jasper’s anger and emotions? In some ways, yes, but Gow is skilled enough to keep the parallels from feeling trite or clunky. The tiger also serves as a focal point to bring Jasper, Parker, and Yarrow together, leading Jasper to his first real friendships beyond Callan. Gow unfolds their cautiously growing relationships with care and shows how their Venn diagram of overlapping identities make them both windows and mirrors for each other.
Jasper’s transness is not the focal point of the story, but is an important part of his sense of identity and has contributed to his feelings of being an outsider. His parents and Callan seem to have always accepted him for who he is, though, and he hasn’t experienced any harassment when using the boy’s bathroom at school; his is not a story of rejection as much as one of difference.
Gow’s free verse at times uses different structures and spacing to emphasize different aspects of Jasper’s journey, which feels powerful and effective rather than gimmicky; somehow, the verse format of the book perfectly fits the focus on Jasper’s interior world while also allowing for moments of suspense and excitement as the tiger runs loose.
Jasper’s story is one of transformation, but not in the sense of a gender transition. He’s already there. Instead, we see him grow in other ways, as he begins to understand his anger and himself a little better and as he comes to find friendship and connection. It’s masterfully done, making this a highly recommended title.
Jasper and his family read as White; Parker is Asian, from Vietnam, adopted by White American parents; Yarrow is biracial (Black and White).
