The Tiger’s Apprentice by Laurence Yep

4th grade and up

When I read this book, I had no profound revelations about the state of humanity as I might in reading some of the other books I examined for this blog. Instead, I found a neat little adventure fantasy that was pure escapism – a much needed diversion during an extraordinarily busy semester.

The book centers around Tom, whose grandmother’s life was devoted to, and has just been sacrificed for, the protection of a phoenix egg, the possession of which would give the evil Vatten ultimate power. Her guardianship of the egg, and of Tom, passes to her greatest former pupil, a fastidiously tidy tiger named Mr. Hu. Together with a down-on-her-luck dragon named Mistral and Monkey from Chinese legend, Tom and Mr. Hu fight to keep the egg away from Vatten’s forces.

On more than one occasion, I felt a kinship between this book and the world of Harry Potter. The magical world and the normal world coexist in such a way that most humans have no idea that magic exists; a trip to Chinatown for supplies becomes much like a trip to Diagon Alley with a secret entrance to a marketplace that exists on a plane parallel to the human world. The difference between the two series lies in the mythological underpinnings of the tales. While Rowling’s world draws on Western myth and legend, Yep’s magic comes from Eastern mythology. Chinese creation myths are vital parts of the plot, as are characters from Chinese legend. Dragons, for example, are not bloodthirsty beasts, but rather noble firstborns of the world – they seem to have more in common with the dragons of LeGuin’s Earthsea cycle or Middle-Earth’s elves in their ancient wisdom.

I found Yep’s treatment of dragons interesting in his The Dragon Prince as well. There, the dragon is wise, gentle, and fearsome all at the same time. As a Chinese Beauty and the Beast story, The Dragon Prince draws once again on the Eastern view of dragons as creatures of great magic and power whose benevolence far outweighs the terror their appearance inspires. Like in The Tiger’s Apprentice, the realm of the dragon is under the sea, which makes for a beautiful, poetic setting for a romance.